An FBI employee arrested on suspicion of leaking sensitive information to China has pleaded guilty.
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An FBI employee pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he acted as an agent for China over the course of five years, lying on paperwork about his relationship with a Chinese official and passing the official sensitive FBI information.
According to the office of Preet Bharara, the USA attorney for the Southern District of NY, the Chinese official also asked Chun for information about technology used at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In the following years and up to 2016, when Chun was arrested, the agent had shared information with the Chinese government official such as information regarding the FBI’s internal structure (March 2013) and photos of multiple surveillance technologies used by the FBI (January 2015).
Born in China, naturalized American, aged 46 and holder of a “Top Secret” clearance, Kun Shan Chun aka Joey – in reference to friendly Joey of the world famous TV series Friends – confessed to working as an agent for the Chinese government in exchange for financial rewards, travel and hotel stays.
US Attorney Preet Bharara said he had threatened the country’s security through a “duplicitous” betrayal.
Kun Shan Chun, 46 years old, worked at the FBI’s NY field office as an electronics technician and been granted top-secret security clearance for nearly two decades. “He hopes to put this matter behind him and move forward with his life”, Chun’s lawyer, Jonathan Marvinny, said in a statement.
The FBI started investigating Chun in February of 2015.
The undercover agent assigned to investigate Chun appear to have got him talking by claiming to be a private defense contractor with sensitive government information to sell, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The charge carries a maximum prison term of 10 years, but the government and the defence agreed a sentence of 21-27 months would be appropriate, according to Mr Chun’s plea agreement.
During all this time, Chun lied to his superiors about having contact with foreign nationals during his worldwide trips. He had a top secret security clearance and access to classified information.
Chun and the undercover agent also met in NY in August 2015 during a meeting that was recorded, the charging documents said.
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Chun was allegedly tasked with consulting work in the USA for that Chinese company, for which he was given financial and travel “benefits”. During one of the meetings, Chun stated that he knew firsthand that the Chinese government was actively recruiting individuals who could provide assistance and that the Chinese government was willing to provide immigration benefits and other compensation in exchange for such assistance.
