A Virginia man caught with US$16,500 in cash in his carry-on luggage was on Thursday charged with transmitting top-secret documents to an apparent Chinese agent.
Kevin Mallory, 60, of Leesburg was arrested and made an initial appearance at the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The self-employed consultant who speaks Chinese is charged under the federal Espionage Act and could face life in prison.
In fact, if certain conditions are met, the charges could make Mallory eligible for the death penalty, prosecutor John Gibbs said at Mallory’s court appearance.
Court records indicate that Mallory is a US Army veteran and worked as a special agent for the Diplomatic Security Service at the US Department of State from 1987 to 1990.
Since 1990, he has worked for a variety of government agencies and defense contractors, according to the affidavit.
He held top secret security clearance until he left government service in 2012.
According to the affidavit, Mallory traveled to Shanghai in April and was interviewed by customs agents at O’Hare Airport in Chicago after he failed to declare US$16,500 in cash found in two carry-on bags.
The FBI interviewed him the next month and he admitted that he met with two people from a Chinese think tank, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, who he now believed were Chinese intelligence agents. He said they had given him a special communications device for transmitting documents.
According to the affidavit, Mallory told the FBI agents that the only documents he transferred were two unclassified “white papers” he had written on US policy matters, for which he said he was paid US$25,000, but FBI agents searched the device and found other documents and messages that Mallory thought had been deleted.
In one message, Mallory wrote to the suspected Chinese agent: “Your object is to gain information and my object is to be paid.”
The agent responded: “My current object is to make sure your security and to try to reimburse you.”
According to the affidavit, the Chinese intelligence officers were encouraging Mallory to resume working for the US government so that he could obtain “a position of access.”
An analysis of the documents on the device found four classified documents, including three with a top secret classification.
Mallory, wearing a gray tank top and black US Army athletic shorts, requested a court-appointed lawyer at his initial appearance.
He was ordered held pending a detention hearing scheduled for yesterday afternoon.
The FBI was at his suburban Leesburg home, about 65km west of Washington, much of Thursday executing a search warrant.
Dana Boente, acting assistant attorney general for national security and US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the case is to be prosecuted, said in a statement that the charges “should send a message to anyone who would consider violating the public’s trust and compromising our national security by disclosing classified information.”
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