{"id":330838,"date":"2017-06-23T06:35:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T06:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=330838"},"modified":"2017-06-23T06:35:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T06:35:40","slug":"us-man-gave-top-secret-information-to-chinese-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=330838","title":{"rendered":"US man ‘gave top-secret information’ to Chinese agent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A former US diplomatic officer has been arrested and charged with giving top-secret documents to a Chinese agent.<\/p>\n

According to an affidavit, Kevin Mallory, a 60-year-old from Virginia, is said to have travelled to Shanghai in March and April 2017.<\/p>\n

He also failed to declare $16,500 (\u00a313,000) in cash found in two carry-on bags when travelling through Chicago airport, said the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Under the federal Espionage Act, he could face life in prison.<\/p>\n

The FBI has confirmed he was entrusted with high-level clearance when working for the government.<\/p>\n

His access was rescinded when he ceased to be a state employee in 2012, after which he became a self-employed consultant.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post said that, according to two government officials, Mr Mallory was employed by the CIA, but this information was not given in court.<\/p>\n

During a voluntary interview with FBI agents in May, Mr Mallory said the person he met in Shanghai told him he was working for a Chinese think-tank, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS).<\/p>\n

The FBI has, since at least 2014, believed that Chinese spies use SASS affiliations to cover-up their identities, according to the US Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

The affidavit also detailed a note Mr Mallory allegedly wrote to the individual, saying “your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid”.<\/p>\n

Mr Mallory, who speaks Chinese Mandarin, made an initial appearance in court on Thursday, and will return for a preliminary hearing on Friday.<\/p>\n

“These charges should send a message to anyone who would consider violating the public’s trust and compromising our national security by disclosing classified information,” said Dana J Boente, acting assistant attorney general for national security.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
–<\/div>\n
Source: BBC<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former US diplomatic officer has been arrested and charged with giving top-secret documents to a Chinese agent. According to an affidavit, Kevin Mallory, a 60-year-old from Virginia, is said to have travelled to Shanghai in March and April 2017. He also failed to declare $16,500 (\u00a313,000) in cash found in two carry-on bags when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[8523,8524,8525],"class_list":["post-330838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-china-secret","tag-diplomatic-secrets","tag-us-secret"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}