A US Department of State employee who allegedly took tens of thousands of US dollars in cash and gifts from Chinese intelligence agents was on Wednesday charged with lying to investigators over those contacts.
The US Department of Justice said Candace Marie Claiborne, 60, knew that the two Chinese men she had regular contact with while working for the US Department of State in China and other nations were from the Chinese security services, and that the money they gave her was in exchange for US secrets.
She took cash and an iPhone for herself, but most of the funds went to an unidentified man half her age with whom she lived.
“Candace Marie Claiborne is a US State Department employee who possesses a Top Secret security clearance and allegedly failed to report her contacts with Chinese foreign intelligence agents who provided her with thousands of dollars of gifts and benefits,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord said in a statement. “Claiborne used her position and her access to sensitive diplomatic data for personal profit.”
The justice department’s initial charges against her were limited to obstructing the investigation into her case and lying to agents.
Claiborne, who has worked for the state department since 1999 and had significant financial problems, was arrested on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty in her first court appearance on Wednesday.
The complaint says Claiborne knew at least one of the agents of the Chinese Ministry of State Security as early as 2007.
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