A former CIA intelligence officer has been sentenced to two decades behind bars after being found guilty last year of passing defense secrets to China.
Kevin Patrick Mallory, 62, of Leesburg, was found guilty by a federal jury in June 2018 of conspiracy to deliver, attempted delivery, delivery of national defense information to aid a foreign government, and making material false statements.
He is said to have been paid $25,000 for handing classified documents to 'Michael Yang,' a Chinese intelligence officer he met in Shanghai in March and April 2017.
These documents included information on CIA informants, according to the Department of Justice.
Fluent Mandarin-speaker Mallory is said to have scanned the Top Secret documents onto an SD card at his local FedEx store. Yet although he shredded the originals, the FBI found the storage device carefully hidden, during a search of his home.
The disgraced former spy worked for various government agencies and defense contractors, including roles as a covert case officer for the CIA and an intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). His Top Secret clearance is said to have been terminated in 2012 when he left government service.
“Former US intelligence officer Kevin Patrick Mallory will spend the next 20 years of his life in prison for conspiring to pass national defense information to a Chinese intelligence officer,” said assistant attorney general for national security, John Demers.
“This case is one in an alarming trend of former US intelligence officers being targeted by China and betraying their country and colleagues. This sentence, together with the recent guilty pleas of Ron Hansen in Utah and Jerry Lee in Virginia, deliver the stern message that our former intelligence officers have no business partnering with the Chinese, or any other adversarial foreign intelligence service.”
Lee is thought to have provided the information needed to take down a major CIA network in China between 2010 and 2012. The US is believed to be at a distinct intelligence disadvantage now with regards to China.