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WASHINGTON: A Singaporean who recruited US officials to provide classified political and defense information to China was sentenced to 14 months in prison by a US court on Friday (October 9).
Jun Wei Yeo, also named Dickson Yeo, received a relatively light sentence and was credited with 11 months that he already spent in prison due to his cooperation with US authorities and also the threat of contracting COVID-19 in prison, the judge said Washington Federal Tanya Chutkan.
The sentence means that he could be released and expelled from the United States in January.
The 39-year-old was arrested at an airport in November 2019 and pleaded guilty in July to one count of illegally operating as a foreign agent, which can carry up to 10 years in prison.
At a sentencing hearing by teleconference, Yeo appeared to break down when he expressed his regret and said that he had no intention of harming anyone.
He said the US judicial authorities had treated him well.
“All I would like to do is go home to my family,” he said.
But then he added that he continues to support Beijing.
“I still sympathize with the Chinese cause,” he told the court.
“Politically, I have sympathy. I freely admit it,” he said.
READ: How a Singaporean man went from being a NUS PhD student to working for Chinese intelligence in the US
Chutkan, whose sentence was two months less than the 16 months recommended by federal prosecutors, made a comparison with other countries and told Yeo: “I’m going to punish you for what you did, not for what you think.”
“Mr. Yeo worked under the direction of the intelligence service of the People’s Republic of China,” he said.
“The crime that Mr. Yeo committed was not a momentary failure.”
“I can say that you are a very polite man and I have no doubt that you understood that you knew what you were doing,” he told Yeo.
“His operation was designed to weaken the United States for the benefit of China.”
At the same time, Chutkan said he had to accept prosecutors’ claims that Yeo cooperated well with investigators in the case.
In addition, he noted that Yeo had survived 11 months in United States prisons, where there are extensive outbreaks of coronavirus, without becoming infected.
“Yeo is lucky. So far he has not gotten Covid,” he said.
“It would be horrible if he succeeds because he has to spend a few more months in jail.”
READ: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Cancels Dickson Yeo’s PhD Candidacy
He pleaded guilty in July to using his political consultancy in the United States as a front to gather information for Chinese intelligence services.
The former National University of Singapore (NUS) PhD student admitted to illegally operating as a foreign agent in the US.
WHAT DID
Yeo admitted to working between 2015 and 2019 for Chinese intelligence to detect and assess Americans with access to valuable non-public information, including US military and government employees with high-level security clearances.
Yeo paid some of those people to write reports that he claimed were for clients in Asia, but sent them to the Chinese government.
In a statement of fact filed with the court and signed by Yeo, he admitted that he was fully aware that he worked for Chinese intelligence, had met with agents in China dozens of times, and received special treatment when he traveled to China.
Yeo was recruited by Chinese intelligence while at the NUS in 2015. He had researched and written about China’s Belt and Road initiative to expand its global business networks.
READ: Dickson Yeo: China ‘not aware’ of case, says US should stop using ‘espionage issue’ to smear it
According to his LinkedIn page, he worked as a political risk analyst focusing on China and ASEAN countries, saying he was “bridging North America and Beijing, Tokyo and Southeast Asia.”
Yeo also received instructions from Chinese intelligence to open a fake consulting firm in the US and post job offers for the company on an online job search website.
He received more than 400 resumes, 90 percent of which were from US military or government personnel with security clearance.
Yeo gave his Chinese handlers the resumes he thought they would find interesting, according to court documents.
READ: Dickson Yeo case: Investigations have revealed no direct threat to Singapore’s security, says MHA
He said he had hired several people to work with him, targeting those who admitted to having financial difficulties.
Among them were a civilian working on the Air Force’s F-35B stealth fighter-bomber project, a Pentagon military officer with experience in Afghanistan, and a State Department official, all of whom were paid up to $ 2,000 for writing reports for Yeo.
