WASHINGTON: A Singaporean academic who recruited US officials to provide classified political and defense information to China was sentenced to 14 months in prison by a US court on Friday (Oct 9).
Jun Wei Yeo, also called Dickson Yeo, was given a relatively light sentence and credited for 11 months already spent in prison because of his cooperation with US authorities and also the threat of contracting COVID-19 in jail, said Washington federal judge Tanya Chutkan.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHe pleaded guilty in July to using his political consultancy in the US as a front to collect information for Chinese intelligence services.
The former National University of Singapore (NUS) PhD student admitted to operating illegally as a foreign agent in the US.
[h=3]READ: How a Singaporean man went from NUS PhD student to working for Chinese intelligence in the US[/h]WHAT HE DID
AdvertisementAdvertisementYeo 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 high-level security clearances.
Yeo paid some of those individuals to write reports that he said were for clients in Asia, but sent them instead to the Chinese government.
In a statement of facts submitted to the court and signed by Yeo, he admitted he was fully aware he was working for Chinese intelligence, had met agents in China dozens of times and was given special treatment when he travelled to China.
Yeo was recruited by Chinese intelligence while at the NUS in 2015. He had researched and wrote about China's Belt and Road initiative to expand its global commercial networks.
Advertisement[h=3]READ: Dickson Yeo: China 'not aware' of case, says US should stop using 'espionage issue' to smear it[/h][h=3]READ: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy cancels Dickson Yeo's PhD candidature[/h]According to his LinkedIn page, he worked as a political risk analyst focused on China and ASEAN countries, saying he was "bridging North America with Beijing, Tokyo and Southeast Asia".
Yeo was also directed by Chinese intelligence to open up a fake consultancy in the US and post job listings for the company on an online job-search website.
He received more than 400 resumes, 90 per cent of which were from US military or government personnel with security clearances.
Yeo gave his Chinese handlers the resumes that he thought they would find interesting, according to the court documents.
[h=3]READ: Dickson Yeo case: Investigations have not revealed any direct threat to Singapore's security, says MHA[/h]He said he had recruited a number of people to work with him, targeting those who admitted to financial difficulties.
They included a civilian working on the Air Force's F-35B stealth fighter-bomber project, a Pentagon army officer with Afghanistan experience, and a State Department official, all of whom were paid as much as US$2,000 to write reports for Yeo.
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