How a $ 230,000 debt and a message on LinkedIn led a former CIA officer to spy on China

April 4, 2019, 08:34 GMT

By Ken Dilanian

The court records show that Kevin Mallory, a former CIA officer, had a debt of $ 230,000 and months late on his mortgage in early 2017, when he received a message from a headhunter Chinese on LinkedIn.

The swap triggered a series of events that led to Mallory's conviction last year for spying for China. Thursday, he should be sentenced in Virginia. Mallory, 61, faces a life sentence.

Prosecutors said his betrayal was particularly flagrant because he had given his Chinese service providers highly classified information about US agents who had to travel to China. Mallory's conviction comes as US intelligence services worried about the scale and intensity of Chinese espionage against the United States – via piracy, the hiring of journalists, and the hijacking of US intelligence. US agents and the infiltration of Chinese agents into American companies and organizations.

On Tuesday, a Chinese woman was arrested for entering the precincts of Mar-a-Lago, Florida, of President Donald Trump, with a USB key containing software that officials fear could be used. to secretly enter computer networks.

Last month, a former Pentagon intelligence officer, the Defense Intelligence Agency, pleaded guilty to trying to spy on China. Last year, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, another former CIA officer, was indicted for espionage. NBC News reported that the authorities suspected the journalist of providing information that resulted in the death of more than a dozen CIA informants in China.

When experts evaluate the main threat to the security of the United States, "I think it's China all the time," said recently retired CIA chief and general David, Petraeus, at a gathering of former and current intelligence officials at Sea Island, Georgia.

Mallory was one of the few cases of espionage to have been the subject of a lawsuit. As a result, there is an important public record of what happened. It was a classic espionage recruitment of someone whose career had failed, leading to money problems.

A graduate of Brigham Young University, Mallory spent a time in the US military and a career in the intelligence world.

He worked as a CIA affairs officer in the 1990s, which meant that he was an undercover officer tasked with manipulating agents and stealing foreign secrets. Fluent in Mandarin, he became a senior intelligence officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the early 2000s. He returned to the CIA as an entrepreneur from 2010 to 2012, but he lost his authorization very secretive security after inappropriately disclosing classified information, according to court records.

He no longer had stable work after that, according to court records, making him an ideal target for recruitment.

"As of January 17, 2017, the defendant had arrears on his mortgage loan of $ 12,205.32," says the court record. He had $ 30,000 and a balance of more than $ 200,000 on a home equity line of credit.

In February 2017, Mallory responded to Michael Yang's message on LinkedIn, which featured as a think tank looking for a foreign policy expert. The FBI says that he was a Chinese intelligence agent.

The records established a relationship, and Mallory was eventually paid $ 25,000. He made two trips to China and gave important secrets, according to the testimony of the trial. According to his testimony, his agents offered him a Samsung phone that also served as a hidden communication device.

While working with the Chinese, Mallory began contacting former CIA colleagues in an apparent effort to induce them to obtain information. The former colleagues became suspicious and contacted the CIA, according to prosecutors.

The spy agency has opened an investigation with the FBI. Customs officials stopped Mallory at the O & # 39; Hare airport in Chicago on his return from his second trip to China. The agents discovered $ 16,000 in cash and over the phone.

The device has turned out to be a gold mine for prosecutors.

"Your object is to obtain information," said Mallory to Yang, according to the texts retrieved from the phone, "and my subject must be paid."

He added: "I will destroy all electronic records after confirming your receipt, I have already destroyed the paper records, I can not keep them, too dangerous."

Once he realized that the authorities were watching him, Mallory told the CIA that he thought Chinese intelligence had tried to recruit him. According to the court's testimony, he seemed stunned when the incriminating messages were broadcast on the Samsung phone in the presence of the investigators.

After their arrest, the FBI searched his home and found a digital storage card containing eight secret and top secret documents.

The jurors learned that these documents revealed the details of a still-classified spying operation and a CIA analysis of the intelligence capabilities of another foreign country.

"The information itself is always timely and revealing," said Hugh Michael Higgins, former head of operations at the DIA, in court. "It would always have a serious impact on national defense."

Some information on the documents could have put US agents at risk, prosecutors said. Mallory and sent information about the couple who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency after learning that they would visit China in the summer of 2017, according to court records.

A federal jury sentenced Mallory in June 2018.

The judge in the case is T.S. Ellis, who has been criticized for what some have called a relatively light sentence that he inflicted on former Trump campaign president Paul Manafort.

Mallory has never acknowledged his guilt, prosecutors said, and his lawyers have pleaded for a lesser sentence, saying the case had not caused any real damage to the national security.

Prosecutors see things very differently.

The defendant, to whom were entrusted the critical secrets of our country, has put our country and human lives – including the life of property – at risk of financial gain, "prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum. He then lied about his actions and took steps to conceal them. Therefore, the nature and circumstances of the offenses amply demonstrate why a life sentence is appropriate. "