FBI agent admits to spying for China

An FBI technician pleaded guilty on August 1 to working secretly and leaking sensitive information to a Chinese official.

Kun Shan Chun, 46, faces up to 10 years in prison after admitting to secretly passing sensitive information to a Chinese official.

According to AFP, the information Kun released included the identity and travel details of an FBI employee, information about the agency's internal structure, and surveillance technology used by the FBI.

Mr. Kun Shan Chun. Photo: AFP.

Kun was born in China and moved to the United States in 1985. He became an American citizen in 1997. Since 1997, Kun has been an electrical technician at the FBI office in New York.

According to the FBI investigation, since 2006, Kun and several family members have been interacting with a person “connected to the Chinese government” and several other mainland businessmen who asked Kun to “provide advice and conduct research” on certain technology issues in exchange for regular payments and even prostitutes.

In the summer of 2015, the FBI sent an investigator posing as a Chinese-American working for the Department of Defense to approach Kun. After several contacts, the suspect showed a willingness to pass sensitive US government information to the impersonator.

In assessing the seriousness of Kun's actions, Manhattan District Judge Preet Bharara stated that the defendant's crime was "treason and a threat to the security of the country." "When the perpetrator is an FBI agent like Kun San Chun, the threat is many times more serious," the judge said.

According to Zing