US diplomat Candace Marie Claiborne gets 40 months in prison for selling documents to Chinese agents
- Claiborne was a State Department specialist based in Beijing and Shanghai who became involved with two agents from the Ministry of State Security
The US Justice Department said Candace Marie Claiborne, 63, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States in one of several high-profile cases involving Beijing spies’ recruitment of US officials with access to classified intelligence. She will also be fined US$40,000.
Claiborne was entrusted with privileged information ... and she abused that trust at the expense of our nation’s security
Claiborne was a Department of State office management specialist based in Beijing and Shanghai who became involved beginning in 2007 with two men the Justice Department said she knew were agents of China’s Ministry of State Security.
They gave her “tens of thousands” of dollars in cash and gifts in exchange for documents and information on State Department activities, it said.
Claiborne was arrested two years ago following an investigation but was not charged with espionage.
In April 2019 she admitted conspiracy to defraud the United States, lying to investigators and, as a government official with a high security clearance, illegally hiding her contacts with foreign agents.
She faced a possible 60 months in prison.