A FBI electronics technician pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Monday to using his Top Secret security clearance to get internal agency records and give them to a Chinese government agent.
The Chinese-born Kun Shan Chun, a naturalized citizen of the United States, was charged with acting in the United States as an agent of China between 2011 and 2016.
The 19-year-long FBI employee pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general.
The spy, 46, also known as “Joey Chun,” gave a range of information to the Chinese, including an FBI organizational chart, photos and documents about FBI surveillance technology and the travel itinerary of a FBI special agent.
He also claimed in a government questionnaire that he had not had close contact with a foreign national in seven years.
Chun sat solemnly in the courtroom in a blue-and-white button-down shirt and held his head in his hands. Prosecutors said Chun was in psychiatric care, but it was unclear whether that extended to his time with the FBI.
He is slated to be sentenced on Dec. 1, when he faces up to 20 to 27 months in prison.
According to the indictment, Chun and relatives of his had relationships with officials from a Chinese company called Zhuhai Kolion Technology Ltd.
Chun slipped up after the U.S. government got wise to him and sent in an undercover agent who got him to talk.
Chun was caught on a wiretap admitting that he knew what he was doing was wrong.
“You have to report [contacts with foreign governments],” he said. “I lied. I reported certain people, but not everybody.”
