FBI employee pleads guilty to acting as chinese agent

Washington, Aug 2 (IANS) A New York FBI employee pleaded guilty in Federal Court on Monday to acting as a Chinese agent in the US, officials said.

Kun Shan Chun, 46, who is known as "Joey Chun", was charged with four counts of providing false statements about his contact with foreign nationals.

In a complaint, the FBI alleged that Chun travelled to Europe and met with those foreign nationals without telling the agency, as he was required to do, NBC News reported.

"Americans who act as unauthorised foreign agents commit a federal offence that betrays our nation and threatens our security," said Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

"And when the perpetrator is an FBI employee, like Kun Shan Chun, the threat is all the more serious and the betrayal all the more duplicitous," Bharara added.

In the complaint, the FBI said that it introduced Chun to an undercover agent in February 2015.

He allegedly told the agent that he would send the US technology to a company in China and as per the complaint, "indicated that his Chinese associates deal with the Chinese government and probably have some government people".

According to NBC News, Chun allegedly told the FBI that his access to sensitive US government information could be valuable and that China would be willing to pay for it. In return, the complaint said, Chun allegedly "expected a cut of any payment" for that information.

Chun was not charged with actually passing along sensitive US information to the Chinese. The FBI said Chun had top secret security clearance since approximately 1998.