WASHINGTON – Authorities in US have arrested a former officer of CentralInvestigation Agency (CIA) for allegedly trying to pass top secretinformation, including details of spying operations and informants, toChina.
According to the Justice Department, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, aka Zhen ChengLi, 53, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, was arrested onMonday following charges of unlawful retention of national defenseinformation.
The US spy network was facing failure in recent years when it startedlosing its informants in China from 2010.
According to an investigation report published by NYT last year, Chineseauthorities either killed or jailed 18 to 20 CIA sources from 2010 to 2012following a massive intelligence breach at the agency.
The investigators of FBI also launched an intense inquiry to trace theloophole. They suspected either Chines government had hacked the secretcommunication of the agency or there is a mole within the agency who isleaking information to China.
On Tuesday, the former CIA officer was produced before Brooklyn federalcourt and is being held there while awaiting transfer to Virginia. Thejudge ordered that Lee should be held in custody without bail.
In a press release issued by the Justice Department, “Lee, who left the CIAin 2007, is a naturalized U.S. citizen and currently residing in Hong Kong,China. According to court documents, Lee began working for the CIA as acase officer in 1994, maintained a Top Secret clearance and signed numerousnon-disclosure agreements during his tenure at CIA”.
In August 2012, Lee and his family left Hong Kong to return to the UnitedStates to live in northern Virginia. While traveling back to the UnitedStates, Lee and his family had hotel stays in Hawaii and Virginia.
During each of the hotel stays, FBI agents conducted court-authorizedsearches of Lee’s room and luggage, and found that Lee was in unauthorizedpossession of materials relating to the national defense, it added.
The release further said, “Specifically, agents found two small bookscontaining handwritten notes that contained classified information,including but not limited to, true names and phone numbers of assets andcovert CIA employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operationalmeeting locations and locations of covert facilities”.
Lee could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted. “Themaximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided herefor informational purposes. If convicted of any offense, the sentencing ofthe defendant will be determined by the court after considering theadvisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”