A former CIA official was sentenced to 10 years in prison for betraying his country by spying for China.
According to a BBC report, 71-year-old Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, was arrested in August 2020 after he admitted to an undercover FBI agent that he sold US secrets to China.
Ma, a naturalized US citizen born in Hong Kong, worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989. He went on to work for the FBI later in his career.
At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, lawyers for the US government told the court that he has been co-operative, and has already taken part in "multiple interview sessions with government agents".
Officials say Ma collaborated with a relative, who was also a CIA agent, to supply secrets to intelligence officers employed by the Shanghai State Security Bureau.
One meeting in Hong Kong was recorded on video and shows Ma counting $50,000 (£38,000) in cash for the secrets they shared, federal prosecutors say.
The FBI, already aware of his espionage activities "hired Ma as part of a ruse to monitor and investigate his activities and contacts", prosecutors said on Wednesday.
According to the AP, the unnamed collaborator was Ma's brother, who died before he could be prosecuted.
In a deal with prosecutors, Ma was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release in a Hawaiian court on Wednesday.
