FBI employee pleads guilty to spying for China

A longtime FBI employee pleaded guilty on Monday to passing sensitive information to China.

Kun Shan Chun, a 47-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in China also known as “Joey,” told a federal court in New York that he acted as an illegal agent of China and passed along U.S. secrets to one or more Chinese officials from 2011 to 2016.

Among those secrets, according to the Justice Department, were details about the identity and travel of an FBI special agent, the internal organization of the FBI and photographs from a restricted area in the FBI’s New York field office.

{mosads}”Today Joey Chun accepted responsibility for some mistakes in judgment that he deeply regrets,” Chun’s attorney, Jonathan Marvinny, said in a statement. “The truth is that Mr. Chun loves the United States and never intended to cause it any harm. He hopes to put this matter behind him and move forward with his life.”

Chun has allegedly worked as an electronics technician in the technical branch of the FBI’s New York field office since 1997. As a result of his work, he was granted a top-secret security clearance.

According to a complaint unsealed on Monday, he maintained close ties with a Chinese official and businessmen connected to a Chinese manufacturer. In exchange for “consulting tasks” on behalf of the company, he was paid thousands of dollars and sometimes was reimbursed with prostitutes.

Chun last October allegedly acknowledged in a recorded conversation with an undercover agent that he had broken the law by failing to disclose his relationships with people from China. 

In another recorded conversation, Chun allegedly told the undercover source that he could make connections to people in China interested in sensitive information, and appeared to ask for a cut of any payment.

“I could get you connected and then I’m going to stay off,” he said, according to the complaint. “You do your thing, you make your money. … If you make any money, just give me a little bit.”

The effort to connect the undercover agent to a Chinese official was unsuccessful, prosecutors said.

“Kun Shan Chun violated our nation’s trust by exploiting his official U.S. government position to provide restricted and sensitive FBI information to the Chinese government,” John Carlin, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division, said in a statement.

Chun was born in Guangdong, China, and came to the U.S. in 1980.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately comment on the case.

His crime carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced in December.

Updated 2:41 p.m.