Ex-C.I.A.

Officer Is Convicted of Spying for China

Image

A former C.I.A. case officer faces life in prison after he was found guilty of espionage charges and
lying to the F.B.I. about his contacts with Chinese intelligence.CreditCarolyn Kaster/Associated
Press

By Adam Goldman

June 8, 2018

WASHINGTON — A former C.I.A. case officer faces life in prison after he was convicted on Friday of
betraying his country to spy on behalf of China.

Kevin Mallory, 61, of Leesburg, Va., was found guilty of espionage charges and lying to the F.B.I.
about his contacts with Chinese intelligence.

The verdict capped a nearly two-week trial that offered a rare glimpse into the murky world of
American espionage cases, which typically do not go to trial because of the difficulties involving
highly classified information.

“There are few crimes in this country more serious than espionage,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger,
the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This office has a long history of
holding those accountable who betray their country and try and profit off of classified
information.”

Mr. Mallory’s lawyers have steadfastly denied the charges. They claim that Mr. Mallory, a former
C.I.A. clandestine officer and a private consultant, is a patriot who planned to use his recruitment
to lure Chinese intelligence handlers into the C.I.A.’s grasp. Mr. Mallory left the C.I.A. in 2012.

“This was an intelligence operation against Chinese intelligence,” Mr. Mallory’s lawyer Geremy
Kamens said Thursday during closing arguments. “In reality, Kevin Mallory was working against the
Chinese.”

You have 4 free articles remaining.

Subscribe to The Times

The jury was not convinced, deliberating for a day before deciding to believe the substantial
evidence prosecutors presented in the federal courtroom in Northern Virginia.

In early 2017, a Chinese headhunter sent Mr. Mallory a message about contracting work using a
networking site. But the job Mr. Mallory thought he was exploring turned out to have a far
different purpose.

ADVERTISEMENT
He was passed to a Chinese intelligence operative working for a think tank who wanted him to
become an informant. And over the next four months, Mr. Mallory, who is fluent in Mandarin
Chinese, traveled to Shanghai, had covert communications with the operative on a Chinese-
provided phone and passed information — including an unclassified white paper on American
intelligence policy — to his handlers, the authorities said.

But Chinese attempts to protect the contents of the phone from prying eyes failed because of an
apparent technical problem. The F.B.I. was able to analyze it and found a handwritten index
describing eight documents. Four of the documents listed in the index were found on the phone,
with three containing classified information.

The twist in Mr. Mallory’s spy career was that he told the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. parts of the story and
provided his phone to agents. This was evidence that Mr. Mallory was not a spy, his lawyers said.

The prosecution said that story was “totally and completely absurd.” Mr. Mallory, prosecutors
said, selectively disclosed his contacts in order to have a potential defense in case federal
investigators caught on to his true plan: to trade American secrets for cash.

“His intent was never to help,” John Gibbs, a federal prosecutor, said Thursday. “His intent was to
lie.”

At the time he was recruited, prosecutors say, Mr. Mallory was thousands of dollars in debt and
behind on his mortgage, making him a prime target for intelligence operatives looking to trade
money for secrets. In Mr. Mallory’s case, the Chinese gave him $25,000, the authorities said.

Mr. Mallory is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

The high-profile case is among several recent ones involving Chinese attempts to recruit former
American intelligence officials. In January, the F.B.I. arrested Jerry Chun Shing Lee, another former
C.I.A. officer, who had repeated contacts with Chinese intelligence. He has been charged with
illegally possessing classified information and conspiring to spy for the Chinese.

Last week, prosecutors charged Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency case
officer, with attempted espionage. The F.B.I. began investigating Mr. Hansen’s activities in 2014.

……………………………………………

Ex-CIA Officer Convicted in Spy Case

By NBC Washington Staff

Published at 5:16 PM EDT on Jun 8, 2018 | Updated at 6:38 AM EDT on Jun 9, 2018
A jury in the Eastern District of Virginia found a former CIA officer guilty Friday of delivering
classified documents to a Chinese intelligence officer.

Prosecutors said 61-year-old Kevin Mallory of Leesburg, Virginia, sold secret documents to the
Chinese for $25,000 last spring. Mallory claimed his meeting with the Chinese was about his
consulting business.

Mallory traveled to Shanghai in March and April 2017 and met Michael Yang, a man who said he
worked for a think tank but who Mallory assessed worked for Chinese intelligence, according to
the U.S. Attorney's Office. Mallory told this to the FBI in May 2017.

The FBI inspected a smartphone given to Mallory by Yang to communicate secretly and found
incriminating messages. In one message, Mallory said he could return in June with the rest of the
documents, according to the prosecution.

Prosecutors Play Interrogation Video in Espionage Case[DC] Prosecutors Play Interrogation Video
in Espionage Case

A former CIA officer accused of espionage for China was back in court Friday. David Culver reports.
(Published Friday, June 1, 2018)

In another, FBI agents said Mallory wrote to the Chinese, “I am taking the real risk,” and later sent
a message saying, “Your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid for.”

The phone also had an index of eight classified documents and four of those documents
themselves.

The defense said Mallory had grown suspicious about a Chinese think tank's job offer and hatched
a plan to feed them phony documents.

Bounce House Therapy Aims to Help Kids With Special Needs

Mallory's scheme unraveled when he was selected for secondary screening at O'Hare Airport in
April 2017 on a flight back from Shanghai with his son, the prosecution said. Customs agents found
$16,500 in unreported cash and questioned Mallory about the nature of his trip.

The customs agents allowed Mallory entry after assessing a $188 tariff on some electronics
Mallory said he had purchased. But the prosecution said the encounter prompted Mallory to reach
out to some old CIA contacts to concoct a cover story for his espionage.

The defense said Mallory reached out to his old CIA contacts months before he was supposedly
spooked by the airport inspection. A CIA analyst and a CIA contractor testified Mallory contacted
them in February 2017, two months before the Shanghai flight. One of the two testified that
Mallory wanted him to reach out to China contacts in the CIA because he was concerned that the
think-tank offer was not on the level. The other testified that he could not recall exactly why
Mallory reached out.
White Nationalists Planning Rally Near White House

Agents searched Mallory's home and found two small computer discs — one balled up in tin foil in
a closet box filled with junk.

The drives contained secret and top-secret documents, some of which had been sent to the
Chinese recruiter on that Samsung phone, according to the prosecution. One document contained
information about human assets.

The trial heard in the Eastern District of Virginia was rare, as both sides in espionage cases have
strong incentives to reach plea deals because the government is concerned about exposing
secrets, while defendants are worried about potentially stiff sentences.

Deadly Crash on Wilson Bridge Creates Huge Plume of Smoke

Mallory faces up to life in prison. Actual penalties for federal crimes usually are less than the
maximum, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.