Spying is a dangerous game but those who play it seem to bask in luxury while the fun game lasts.
A longtime FBI employee with top-secret clearances pleaded guilty to the United States of America, after he betrayed the country by selling out sensitive information to China. The “American-Chinese Judas” allegedly provided Chinese intelligence officials with lots of secret US files, prosecutors announced Monday.
Image shows Kun Shan Chun.
Kun Shan Chun was secretly arrested in March and held on charges of lying repeatedly about his contacts in China, who lavished him with prostitutes, cash and expensive hotel rooms, according to the criminal complaint.
Chun, 46, who was born in China and is also known as Joey, faces up to 10 years in prison, according to SCMP.
His lawyer, Jonathan Marvinny, said in an email: “Today Joey Chun accepted responsibility for some mistakes in judgment that he deeply regrets.
“The truth is that Mr Chun loves the United States and never intended to cause it any harm.
“He hopes to put this matter behind him and move forward with his life.”
Prosecutors accused Chun, who joined the FBI in 1997, of failing to disclose that he had contact with a Chinese national during an overseas trip, among other violations.
Kun Shan Chun violated our nation’s trust by exploiting his official . . . position to provide restricted and sensitive FBI information to the Chinese Government,” Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, who heads the Justice Department’s national security division, said in a statement.
Authorities said Chun also did not tell the FBI about a business venture with a Chinese technology company called Kolion, according to the complaint.
Since at least 2006, the FBI said, Chun performed research and consulted on behalf of the company in exchange for benefits that included foreign travel.
According to Kolion’s website, the company makes toner cartridges for copiers and printers.
During that period, the FBI said, Chun was also in contact with an individual affiliated with the Chinese government.
“At the time I knew what I was doing was wrong, and I am sorry for my actions,” Mr. Chun is quoted as telling the judge in court.
According to prosecutors, Chun downloaded an FBI organisational chart from his work computer in 2013 and provided the document, without names, to the Chinese. In January 2015, he took photographs of documents in a restricted area at the field office that summarized details about “multiple surveillance technologies used by the FBI.” He later gave that information to a Chinese official, authorities say.
The FBI apparently became suspicious enough of Chun to mount an undercover operation in February 2015. The FBI’s undercover agent told Chun that he worked as an independent contractor for the Pentagon. During a meeting in New York later that year, Chun told the agent that his associates in China provided paid prostitutes and had given his parents money.
His parents apparently had stock in Kolion, too, and owned property in China.
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