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Law360 (September 10, 2020, 2:20 PM EDT ) A former CIA operative accused of selling secrets to China will remain in jail while he awaits trial following a Hawaii federal magistrate's order identifying him as a flight risk and a national security threat.
According to a pretrial detention order signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader on Tuesday, no conditions of release would be enough to ensure Alexander Yuk Ching Ma's appearance at trial. Ma, 67, a veteran CIA field agent who most recently worked as a linguist in the FBI's Honolulu field office, has been detained at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center since his arrest Aug. 14.
Judge Trader called the government's evidence against Ma "substantial, convincing and concerning" in a note attached to the order that called him "a danger to the community and nation due to the nature of the information known to him and the weight of the evidence of his willingness to communicate such information to the People's Republic of China."
An FBI affidavit in the criminal complaint against Ma described the agency's review of video it said captured Ma and a relative answering detailed questions about the inner workings of the CIA for officials within China's Ministry of State Security over the course of three days at a Hong Kong hotel in 2001.
After joining the FBI's Honolulu field office in 2004, Ma continued communicating sensitive information to Chinese handlers, exchanging information through emails and photographs of classified documents in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash and other rewards, according to the affidavit.
The FBI alleges that Ma met with an undercover agent posing as a Chinese MSS official in 2019 and 2020 and confirmed his previous involvement with MSS. Ma also said he would be willing to resume the relationship, but told the undercover agent, "I already gave you guys everything," the FBI says.
Judge Trader acknowledged the weight of the government's case in his order to detain.
"The evidence proffered by the United States reflects the defendant's involvement in an ongoing conspiracy to communicate classified national defense information of the United States to China over the course of nearly 10 years," he said. "The court finds that the defendant's ties to China, which include personal residences and bank accounts which he failed to report to pretrial services to be of significant concern, particularly when coupled with the defendant's training as a CIA operator."
In its motion to detain, the government also asked the court to disregard possible arguments for home confinement in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Ma's advanced age.
As of Sept. 9, the data from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons showed only one active coronavirus case among staff at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center and no confirmed cases among the inmate population. This figure appears to have remained constant since the middle of August, even as the number of confirmed cases in Honolulu County spiked, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Representatives for Honolulu FDC, Ma and the U.S. attorney's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The government is represented by Kenneth M. Sorenson of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii.
Ma is represented by Birney B. Bervar of Bervar & Jones Attorneys at Law.
The case is U.S. v. Ma, case number 1:20-mj-01016, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
--Editing by Abbie Sarfo.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
