10-Year Sentence for Ex-CIA Officer Who Spied for China and Accepted Bribes

A former CIA officer and FBI contract linguist, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to spying for China. Ma, who had received cash, expensive gifts, and golf clubs in exchange for providing classified information to Chinese intelligence, was handed the sentence on Wednesday by a U.S. district judge.

Ma reached a deal in May with federal prosecutors, who agreed to recommend the 10-year sentence in exchange for his guilty plea on a charge of conspiracy to gather or deliver national defense information to a foreign government. The agreement also mandates that Ma submit to polygraph tests whenever requested by the U.S. government for the rest of his life.

Without plea agreement, Ma would have faced life imprisonment 

A U.S. judge in Honolulu approved the deal, according to court records. Without the plea agreement, Ma could have faced life in prison. If the judge had rejected the deal, Ma would have been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.

“I hope God and America will forgive me for what I have done,” Ma wrote in a letter to Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson before his sentencing. Ma has been in custody since his arrest in 2020.

Here is what you need to know

Ma, originally from Hong Kong, moved to Honolulu in 1968 and became a U.S. citizen in 1975. He joined the CIA in 1982, working overseas until he resigned in 1989. He held a top-secret security clearance during his time with the agency.

Court documents revealed that in 1989, Ma and his brother, identified as "co-conspirator #1," met with Chinese intelligence officers in a Hong Kong hotel room. During that meeting, Ma’s brother handed over a substantial amount of classified U.S. information, and the two were paid $50,000. A video recording from the meeting shows Ma counting the money, according to prosecutors.

A look at how US caught Ma

In 2004, Ma was hired as a contract linguist for the FBI in Honolulu, though authorities were already aware of his collaboration with Chinese intelligence. Over the next several years, Ma continued to steal classified documents, frequently delivering them to China in exchange for cash and lavish gifts, including a new set of golf clubs.

In a sting operation, Ma accepted money from an undercover FBI agent posing as a Chinese intelligence officer. During the exchange, Ma expressed his desire to see the “motherland” succeed.

After Ma’s sentencing, FBI Honolulu special agent-in-charge Steven Merrill said, “Let it be a message to anyone else thinking of doing the same. No matter how long it takes, or how much time passes, you will be brought to justice.”