Posted on August 1, 2016

FBI Employee Arrested for Allegedly Acting as Secret Chinese Agent

Mike Levine, ABC News, August 1, 2016

An FBI employee has been arrested in New York for allegedly lying about secret work for Chinese businessmen and government officials, according to charging documents filed in the case unsealed today.

Kun Shan Chun–or “Joey” Chun–pleaded guilty in federal court today to one count of illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government. He had been working for the FBI’s New York Field office as an electronics technician since 1997, but he was quietly arrested in March after his own office sent an undercover agent to meet with him and record their conversations, according to the charging documents.

Since at least 2006, according to the FBI, Chun and some of his family members maintained close ties with at least one person he “understood to be affiliated with the Chinese government” and multiple businessmen tied to Kolion, a manufacturer of printer products in China. {snip}

As recently as last summer, Chun allegedly met with some of these Chinese associates in Europe. But month earlier, the FBI had sent in an undercover agent, who told Chun he was a Chinese-born U.S. citizen working as a private contractor for the Department of Defense.

Chun allegedly told the undercover agent he wanted everyone to develop a “consulting” relationship, and Chun allegedly expressed desire to pass sensitive U.S. government info to these associates, including people associated with the Chinese government.

After secretly being arrested in March, Chun confessed to most of the allegations against him and admitted to taking steps to collect sensitive FBI information based on tasking from a Chinese government official, according to federal authorities.

{snip}

Chun was born in China in 1969, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1985, according to court documents.

Editor’s Note: A Reuters article adds the following details:

“The truth is that Mr. Chun loves the United States and never intended to cause it any harm,” Jonathan Marvinny, his lawyer, said in a statement. “He hopes to put this matter behind him and move forward with his life.”