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Ex-CIA Officer Sentenced to 19 Years for Conspiring to Spy for Chinese

Jerry Chuan Shing Lee was reportedly approached by Chinese intelligence when he moved to Hong Kong.

A former CIA case officer who pleaded guilty to conspiring to become a Chinese spy was sentenced to 19 years in prison on Friday, Reuters reports. Jerry Chuan Shing Lee left the CIA in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong, where he was approached by two Chinese intelligence officers. According to prosecutors, the officers offered to pay him $100,000 and to take care of him “for life” in exchange for information he had learned when he was at the agency. Hundreds of thousands then flowed into Lee's personal bank account between 2010 and 2013. Prosecutors say the FBI searched Lee's Hawaii hotel room in 2012, where they found an address book and day planner containing handwritten notes he made during his time at the CIA. The notes allegedly included names of CIA assets, meeting locations, phone numbers, and information on covert facilities. Lee allegedly lied to the FBI about the matter when confronted. The 55-year-old pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to deliver national security defense information to aid a foreign government.