A guilty plea was announced days after the Chinese consulate in Houston closed. (Representative)
Washington:
A Singaporean pleaded guilty on Friday to using his political consultancy in the United States to collect information for Chinese intelligence, the US Department of Justice said.
Jun Wei Yeo, also known as Dickson Yeo, pleaded in federal court in Washington to a charge of illegal operation as a foreign agent.
In his plea, Yeo admitted to working between 2015 and 2019 for Chinese intelligence “to spot and assess Americans with access to valuable non-public information, including US military and government employees with security clearances. high level”.
He said Yeo paid some of those people to write reports that were apparently intended for his clients in Asia, but sent to the Chinese government instead.
The guilty plea was announced days after the United States ordered China to shut down its consulate in Houston, calling it a hub of espionage and operations to steal American technology and intellectual property.
The United States has also arrested four Chinese academics in recent weeks, accusing them of lying about visa applications about their ties to the People’s Liberation Army.
In a “statement of facts” submitted to the court and signed by Yeo, he admitted that he was fully aware that he worked for the Chinese intelligence services, meeting with agents dozens of times and receiving special treatment during of his trip to China.
The plea announcement came five weeks after an indictment against Yeo was exposed cryptically accusing him of illegally acting as an agent of an unspecified foreign government.
He was arrested after flying to the United States in November 2019.
Yeo was recruited by Chinese intelligence services while working as an academic at the National University of Singapore.
He had researched and written about China’s Belt and Road Initiative to expand its global trade networks.
According to his LinkedIn page, he worked as a political risk analyst focusing on China and ASEAN countries, saying he “bridged North America to Beijing, Tokyo and Asia. Southeast ”.
In the United States, according to the court record, Yeo was instructed by Chinese intelligence services to open a bogus counseling office and offer jobs.
He received more than 400 resumes, 90% of which were from U.S. military or government officials with security clearances.
Yeo handed his Chinese masters the CVs he thought they would find interesting, according to court documents.
He said he recruited a number of people to work with him, targeting those who admitted to financial hardship.
They included a civilian working on the Air Force’s F-35B stealth fighter-bomber project, a Pentagon Army officer with experience in Afghanistan, and a State Department official, all of whom have been paid up to $ 2,000 for writing reports for Yeo.
Yeo “was using career networking sites and a bogus consulting firm to attract Americans who may be of interest to the Chinese government,” Deputy Attorney General John Demers said in a statement.
“This is yet another example of the Chinese government’s exploitation of the openness of American society,” he said.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
