BEIJING – A former CIA officer could spend the rest of his life behind barsafter pleading guilty on Wednesday to spying for China, the JusticeDepartment said.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 54, was arrested in January 2018, suspected of havingprovided information on a CIA network of informants that was brought downby China between 2010 and 2012.
Lee pleaded guilty before a US District Court judge in the Eastern Districtof Virginia to conspiring to provide national defense information to China,the Justice Department said in a statement. Lee, a former CIA case officer,left the Central Intelligence Agency in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong.
According to the Justice Department, he was approached by two Chineseintelligence officers in April 2010. They offered to pay Lee $100,000 forinformation and to take care of him “for life” in exchange for hiscooperation, it said.
Read Top Stories
The Justice Department said that in May 2010, Lee created a document on hislaptop that described where the CIA assigns officers and the “particularlocation and timeframe of a sensitive CIA operation.” It said the FBI hadalso recovered handwritten notes made by Lee related to his work for theCIA.
“These notes included, among other things, intelligence provided by CIAassets, true names of assets, operational meeting locations and phonenumbers and information about covert facilities,” the Justice Departmentsaid.
