Chinese-origin FBI employee pleads guilty to spying for China

In 2012, the FBI conducted a routine investigation relating to Kun Shan Chun's Top Secret security clearance

A 46-year-old Chinese-origin FBI employee has pleaded guilty to providing information to the Chinese government and spying for China.

Kun Shan Chun, a native of China and a naturalised US citizen, pleaded guilty on Monday to a criminal information charging him with acting in the US as an agent of China without providing prior notice to the Attorney General.

He was an employee of the FBI until his arrest on March 16. He began working for the FBI in 1997 when he was assigned to the Computerised Central Monitoring Facility of the FBI's Technical Branch.

In 2011, during a trip to Italy and France partially paid for by the Chinese nationals, Chun was introduced to an unnamed Chinese Official-1, who indicated that he worked for the Chinese government and that he knew Chun worked for the FBI.

During subsequent private meetings conducted abroad between the two, Chinese Official-1 asked questions regarding sensitive, non-public FBI information.

During those meetings, Chun disclosed, among other things, the identity and potential travel patterns of an FBI Special Agent, federal prosecutors said.

In 2012, the FBI conducted a routine investigation relating to Chun's Top Secret security clearance.

In an effort to conceal his relationships with Chinese Official-1 and the other Chinese nationals purporting to be affiliated with Kolion, Chun made a series of false statements on a standardised FBI form related to the investigation.

Federal prosecutors said on multiple occasions, Chinese Official-1 asked Chun for information regarding the FBI's internal structure.

In March 2013, Chun downloaded an FBI organisational chart from his FBI computer in Manhattan.

Chun later admitted to the FBI that, after editing the chart to remove the names of FBI personnel, he saved the document on a piece of digital media and caused it to be transported to Chinese Official-1 in China.

Chinese Official-1 also asked Chun for information regarding technology used by the FBI.

In January 2015, Chun took photos of documents displayed in a restricted area of the FBI's New York Field Office, which summarised sensitive details regarding multiple surveillance technologies used by the FBI.

Chun sent the photographs to his personal cell phone and later admitted to the FBI that he caused the photographs to be transported to Chinese Official-1 in China, federal prosecutors said.