Singapore man sentenced to prison for spying for China in US
A Singapore man has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for spying for China by passing to the Chinese government valuable but unclassified military and political information he had duped Americans into giving him
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A man from Singapore was sentenced to 14 months in prison Friday for spying by passing to the Chinese government valuable, but unclassified military and political information that he had duped Americans into giving him.
Jun Wei Yeo admitted participating in an elaborate ruse under the direction of Chinese intelligence operatives that recruited unsuspecting U.S. government employees into writing reports that he said would be sent to clients in Asia. The reports were instead transmitted to the Chinese government as part of what the Trump administration has alleged is a broader effort by China to steal American secrets, including cutting-edge research, for Beijing's economic gain.
Prosecutors allege that Yeo, also known as Dickson Yeo, was motivated not only by greed but also be a shared desire with China's Communist government to weaken the global standing of the United States. Over the course of multiple years, according to the Justice Department, he passed along reports on a military aircraft program, U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan and on a Cabinet member, who was not identified in court papers.
“It was a not one-off lapse in judgment that we’re talking about here,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson. The prosecutor said Yeo "worked for a hostile power on our soil to collect nonpublic information of interest to that power.”
The Justice Department believes Yeo was arrested before he was able to obtain any classified information, though prosecutors say he was preparing to receive some before he was taken into custody.
The 14-month sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan during a virtual hearing in Washington was two months shorter than the punishment recommended by prosecutors, and took into account Yeo's cooperation as well as the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the U.S. prison system.
Yeo, who was arrested in November 2019 after an interview with the FBI, will receive credit for the jail time he has already served, meaning he should be released in a matter of weeks. He will be deported after the completion of his sentence.
Yeo said he was eager to return home to his family in Singapore. "I take full responsibility for what I have done,” Yeo said.
“I am sympathetic to China’s position,” he told the judge, "but it was not my intention to harm anyone."
Yeo was a doctoral candidate at a Singapore university when prosecutors say he was recruited by intelligence operatives after a 2015 trip to Beijing to give a presentation.
Working under the operatives' direction over the next several years, the Justice Department alleges, he concocted a fake consulting company that shared its name with a prominent U.S. consulting company and used a professional networking site to target Americans whose jobs he thought would given them access to information that China could use to its advantage.
In addition, prosecutors say, he created fake job postings and collected hundreds of resumes from would-be applicants, most of whom were military and government personnel. He passed along the promising resumes to a Chinese handler.
One of his recruits, a civilian who worked for the Air Force, provided information about the implications of the Japanese purchasing military aircraft from the U.S. that Yeo then turned into a report for his Chinese intelligence contacts. Another recruit, a State Department employee who prosecutors say confided to feeling dissatisfied at work, wrote at Yeo's direction a report on a Cabinet member, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said they would have recommended a harsher sentence for Yeo, who pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of a foreign government, but for his cooperation. He was approached by the FBI at an airport last November, and though he initially declined an interview request and headed toward boarding his flight, he changed his mind and returned to the agents to agree to be questioned.
“Mr. Yeo, while he was still free to leave the United States agreed to cooperate with the United State and was within hours, was completely truthful with the government about what was going on,” he said.
_____
Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP