14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, an FBI agent pleaded guilty to spying for China and selling secret technology to the US' main rival in exchange for money.
The agent's name is Kun Shan Chun, a 46-year-old man born in China and a naturalized US citizen who started working at the FBI in 1997, where, a year later, he received access to classified materials.
Chun's path down the dark side started in 2006, when his family became investors in a state-owned Chinese company named Zhuhai Kolion Technology Company Ltd. (Kolion).
Chun was recruited in 2011
From 2006 to 2010, Chun was prodded multiple times by Kolion employees if he could help them secure information regarding solid state drives, a nascent technology at that point.
In 2011, things took a turn for the worse when Chun was approached by a Chinese government official during a trip to Italy and France paid by other Chinese nationals.
During these initial meetings, Chun was recruited as a double agent for China, and during these meetings, he started offering classified information, such as the identity and potential travel patterns of another FBI agent.
Agent gave China the FBI's internal structure, surveillance tech
In the following years and up to 2016, when Chun was arrested, the agent had shared information with the Chinese government official such as details regarding the FBI’s internal structure (March 2013) and photos of multiple surveillance technologies used by the FBI (January 2015).
During all this time, Chun lied to his superiors about having contact with foreign nationals during his international trips.
FBI's leadership suspected something strange, and in February 2015, they arranged for an undercover agent (also of Chinese descent) to enter Chun's circle of friends and gain his trust.
The agent told Chun that he was also a US citizen born in China who had worked as a consultant for various companies that were contracted in the past by the US Department of Defense.
Undercover agent unmasks Chun
A month later, Chun approached the undercover agent, telling him he had Chinese government backing, revealing his contacts with the Chinese government official he met years before.
In a meeting in June 2015, Chun hinted that he could arrange meetings so he could sell state secrets to the Chinese government official, for a small cut of the profits.
Chun, the undercover agent, and the Chinese government official met in Hungary in July 2015, where, as part of the deal, the Chinese government official was willing to provide immigration benefits to the undercover agent if he wanted to engage in an exchange of information.
The FBI arrested Chun on March 16, 2016, and after pleading guilty, he is now facing a maximum prison sentence of ten years on a count of acting in the United States as an agent of China without providing notice.