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WASHINGTON (AP) – A Singaporean man was sentenced Friday to 14 months in prison for spying on the passing of valuable but unclassified military and political information to the Chinese government that he had tricked Americans into giving him.
Jun Wei Yeo admitted to participating in an elaborate ruse under the direction of Chinese intelligence agents that recruited unsuspecting US government employees to write reports that he said would be sent to clients in Asia. Instead, the reports were relayed 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 investigation, for Beijing’s economic benefit.
Prosecutors allege that Yeo, also known as Dickson Yeo, was motivated not only by greed – he was paid for his work – but also by a shared desire with China’s communist government to weaken America’s global position. Over the course of several years, according to the Justice Department, it relayed reports on a military aircraft program, the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and on a cabinet member, who was not identified in court documents.
“It was not a single trial ruling that we are talking about here,” said Assistant United States Attorney Erik Kenerson. The prosecutor said that Yeo “worked for a hostile power on our soil to collect non-public information of interest to that power.”
The Justice Department believes Yeo was arrested before he could obtain classified information, although prosecutors say he was preparing to receive it shortly before his arrest.
The 14-month sentence imposed by US 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 with the government, as well as the coronavirus pandemic. that has devastated the American 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, which means he should be released in a matter of weeks. You will be deported after serving your sentence.
Yeo said he was looking forward to returning home to his family in Singapore. “I take full responsibility for what I have done,” Yeo said.
“I sympathize with China’s position,” he told the judge, “but it was not my intention to harm anyone.”
Yeo was a doctoral candidate at a Singaporean university when prosecutors say he was recruited by intelligence agents after a trip to Beijing in 2015 to give a presentation on the political situation in Southeast Asia.
Working under the direction of operatives for the next few years, the Justice Department alleges, he invented a bogus consulting firm that shared his name with a prominent American consulting firm and used a professional networking site to target and recruit Americans whose jobs he thought. that would give them access to information that China could use to their advantage.
In addition, prosecutors say, he posted bogus job offers and collected hundreds of resumes from potential applicants, most of whom were government and military personnel. He passed the promising resumes to a Chinese handler.
One of his recruits, a civilian who worked for the Air Force and had a high-level security clearance, provided information on the implications of the Japanese purchase of military aircraft from the US, which Yeo then turned into a report for his Chinese intelligence contacts. Another recruit, a State Department employee who prosecutors said was confident of feeling dissatisfied at work and having financial problems, wrote a report on a cabinet member under Yeo’s direction, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said they would have sought 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, although he initially declined an interview request and made his way to board 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, he agreed to cooperate with the United States and within hours he was completely honest with the government about what was happening,” said Michelle Peterson, his federal advocate.
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Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
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