Former CIA officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, who was accused of engaging in espionage activities for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), pleaded guilty in May this year. If approved by a U.S. judge on Wednesday (September 11), he will face a ten-year prison sentence.
The 71-year-old Ma reached an agreement with federal prosecutors in May. The prosecutors agreed to recommend a 10-year prison sentence in exchange for his guilty plea to charges of conspiring to collect or provide defense information to a foreign government. The plea agreement also requires Ma to cooperate with the U.S. government by providing more details about his case. Additionally, it mandates that for the rest of his life, he must undergo polygraph tests at the request of the U.S. government.
“I hope God and the United States can forgive me for my actions,” Ma wrote in a letter to Chief Judge Derrick Watson of the U.S. District Court in Honolulu before the sentencing. He has been in custody since his arrest in August 2020.
If Ma had not reached this agreement with federal prosecutors, he would have faced a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. If Judge Watson rejects the 10-year prison sentence, Ma will be allowed to withdraw from the agreement.
According to prosecutors, since pleading guilty, Ma has participated in five lengthy and sometimes exhausting meetings, some lasting up to six hours, during which he provided valuable information and diligently answered the government’s questions.
The U.S. Department of Justice has stated in court documents that it has gathered “a substantial amount of compelling evidence” against him, including an hour-long video.
Ma, born in Hong Kong, immigrated to Honolulu in 1968 and became a U.S. citizen in 1975. He joined the CIA in 1982 and was stationed abroad the following year before resigning in 1989. Court documents show that he held a high-level security clearance.
Before returning to Hawaii in 2001, he had lived and worked in Shanghai. At the request of CCP intelligence officials, he agreed to arrange a meeting between Shanghai State Security officials and his brother, who had also worked for the CIA. Court documents further reveal that during a three-day meeting in a hotel room in Hong Kong that year, Ma’s brother (referred to as “Co-conspirator 1” in the plea agreement) provided “a large amount of classified and sensitive information” to CCP intelligence officers and received $50,000 as payment. Prosecutors stated that an hour-long video of the meeting showed Ma counting money.
His brother was never charged. The court documents indicate that his brother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, was physically frail, and has since passed away.
“Because of my brother, I could not confess to this crime,” Ma wrote in a letter to the judge. “He was like a father to me. In a way, I am also glad he has left this world, as it allows me to openly admit to what I have done.”