Ex-CIA officer who spied for China gets 10 years in jail and a lifetime of polygraph tests
Hong Kong-born Alexander Ma pleaded guilty in a deal with US prosecutors that allowed him to avoid a life sentence
A former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI who received cash, golf clubs and other expensive gifts in exchange for spying for China was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, made a deal in May with federal prosecutors, who agreed to recommend the 10-year term in exchange for his guilty plea to a count of conspiracy to gather or deliver national defence information to a foreign government.
The deal also requires him to submit to polygraph tests, whenever requested by the US government, for the rest of his life.
A US judge approved the deal on Wednesday and handed down the agreed-upon sentence, according to court records.
“I hope God and America will forgive me for what I have done,” Ma, who has been in custody since his 2020 arrest, wrote in a letter to Chief US District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu ahead of his sentencing.
Without the deal, Ma faced up to life in prison. He would have been allowed to withdraw from the agreement if Watson rejected the 10-year sentence.