A former Central Intelligence Agency officer was arrested at a New York airport Monday night and accused of keeping notebooks filled with detailed information about undercover agents and assets after he left his job.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, also known as "Zhen Cheng Li," 53, is charged with unlawful retention of national defense information.

Lee had his initial appearance in the Eastern District of New York at 2 p.m. Tuesday. He is not contesting extradition to Virginia, where he will be charged in Alexandria federal court. He does not yet appear to have an attorney.

Lee has been a suspect in a long-running probe to determine if a mole inside the U.S. intelligence community had led to the deaths of a number of CIA assets in China, according to people with knowledge of the probe, which was first reported by the New York Times. He has not been charged with any crimes in connection with those deaths.

People familiar with the matter said that Lee's arrest would be greeted as cause for celebration among current and former CIA officials. But they said it would be hard to prove in court that Lee had provided the information that proved so damaging to the agency's operations.

Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Army veteran, joined the CIA as a case officer in 1994, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent. He had a top secret security clearance and had been given access to sensitive intelligence information. He lost that clearance when he left the agency in 2007.

In 2012, Lee moved to Virginia with his family from Hong Kong, stopping in Hono­lulu on the way, according to the affidavit. Law enforcement searched his hotel rooms in both places and say they found two small books, a datebook and an address book, filled with handwritten classified information: meetings with CIA assets, meeting locations, operational phone numbers, true names of assets and undercover CIA employees, and the addresses of CIA facilities, including covert ones.

The 49-page datebook and the address book, according to the affidavit, were in a small clear plastic travel pack in Lee's luggage.

Some of the information was secret, and at least one item in the books was top secret, according to the FBI.

Lee was interviewed by FBI agents on five separate occasions in or around May and June 2013, according to the affidavit. He also maintained contact with former CIA colleagues and other government employees. At no point did he reveal the existence of the notebooks.

He left the United States again in June 2013, according to the affidavit. Since then, returning Lee to the United States has been a top priority for the CIA, said the people familiar with the matter. He was living in Hong Kong before his arrest at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

He was not lured back to the United States for arrest but had returned for his own reasons, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

Lee served in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1986, according to prosecutors. After that he went to Hawaii Pacific University, where he graduated in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in international business management and in 1993 got a master's degree in human resource management.

Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former Central Intelligence Agency officer was arrested at a U.S. airport on Monday night in connection with charges that he illegally retained highly classified information, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a U.S. citizen who now lives in Hong Kong, used to maintain a top secret clearance and began working for the CIA in 1994.

The Justice Department said FBI agents searched his hotel rooms in 2012, during trips to Virginia and Hawaii. They discovered he had two small books containing handwritten information on details such as the true names and numbers of spy recruits and covert CIA employees.

He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. But Lee made his first court appearance on Tuesday before a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn. The judge ordered Lee held without bail.

A federal public defender who represented Lee at the hearing declined to comment.

An affidavit filed by an FBI agent showed that Lee, 53, served in the U.S. Army from 1982 through 1986 and worked for the CIA from 1994 through 2007.

The FBI agent wrote that Lee and his family left Hong Kong in August 2012 to travel to northern Virginia. Along the way, they stayed in hotels where the FBI found the books.

The books were discovered inside Lee’s luggage, sealed in a small clear plastic travel pack.

The handwritten information inside varied in terms of classification, but the agent said at least one page contained top secret information, “the disclosure of which could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States”.

The agent also said that classified cables Lee wrote while he was a case officer describing his interactions with CIA assets were reflected in the two books.

Lee was interviewed by the FBI five separate times in 2013 and never disclosed he had the books. He also met former CIA colleagues around that time without returning the materials to the government, the Justice Department said.

Hong Kong media said Lee worked at Christie’s auction house in the Asian financial hub. A spokeswoman for the firm confirmed on Thursday it had suspended a Hong Kong employee pending a criminal investigation.

“The allegations significantly pre-date his employment with the company,” she said, adding that the role he had for the last 20 months focused on physical security for facilities and staff.

The role was not linked to data security or IT functions at the company, she said, declining to provide further information.</s>WASHINGTON — A former C.I.A. officer suspected by investigators of helping China dismantle United States spying operations and identify informants has been arrested, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The collapse of the spy network was one of the American government’s worst intelligence failures in recent years.

The arrest of the former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, capped an intense F.B.I. inquiry that began around 2012, two years after the C.I.A. began losing its informants in China. Investigators confronted an enduring mystery: How did the names of so many C.I.A. sources, among the agency’s most dearly held secrets, end up in Chinese hands?

Some intelligence officials believed that a mole inside the C.I.A. was exposing its roster of informants. Others thought that the Chinese government had hacked the C.I.A.’s covert communications used to talk to foreign sources of information.

Still other former intelligence officials have also argued that the spy network might have been crippled by a combination of both, as well as sloppy tradecraft by agency officers in China. The counterintelligence investigation into how the Chinese managed to hunt down American agents was a source of friction between the C.I.A. and F.B.I.</s>US Justice Department said Jerry Chun Shing Lee was arrested John F. Kennedy International Airport</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former Central Intelligence Agency officer was arrested at an U.S. airport on Monday night in connection with charges that he illegally retained highly classified information, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a U.S. citizen who now lives in Hong Kong, used to maintain a top secret clearance and began working for the CIA in 1994. The Justice Department said that in 2012, FBI agents searched his hotel rooms during trips to Virginia and Hawaii, and discovered he had two small books containing handwritten information on details such as the true names and numbers of assets and covert CIA employees.

He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport.</s>US authorities have arrested a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer accused of disclosing top secret information to China. The man could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee was detained Monday night after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Tuesday, the former CIA employee was "charged with unlawful retention of national defense information" by the Eastern District Court of New York. The judge ordered that Lee be held without bail.

US federal authorities accuse Lee of violating the terms of his top secret clearance and conditions of non-disclosure agreements he had signed with the agency he worked for from 1994 to 2007. Lee's disclosures reportedly led to a crackdown on the CIA's informants in China starting in 2010, the New York Times reported citing several former intelligence officials. The 53-year-old was at the center of a mole hunt for years.

Court documents reveal that after settling in Hong Kong with his family after leaving the agency, the accused returned to the US in August 2012 to live in northern Virginia. The FBI took note of Lee's return and placed him under investigation, searching his hotel rooms in Hawaii and Virginia during his travels back and forth between Hong Kong and the United States.

"During each of the hotel stays, FBI agents conducted court-authorized searches of Lee’s room and luggage, and found that Lee was in unauthorized possession of materials relating to the national defense," the DOJ said in a statement. "Specifically, agents found two small books containing handwritten notes that contained classified information, including but not limited to, true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations and locations of covert facilities."

Last year, a NYT investigation revealed that Beijing either killed or imprisoned 18 to 20 CIA sources from 2010 to 2012 following a massive intelligence breach at the agency. Initially, the CIA thought the Chinese could have hacked the Agency's communications system. However, the investigation ultimately honed in on the possibility of an internal leak, possibly by a former CIA analyst who worked in the China division. At the time, the newspaper said, there was not enough evidence to arrest the suspected mole. Whether or not Lee is responsible for exposing CIA operatives in China has not yet been announced.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former Central Intelligence Agency officer was arrested at a U.S. airport on Monday night in connection with charges that he illegally retained highly classified information, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a U.S. citizen who now lives in Hong Kong, used to maintain a top secret clearance and began working for the CIA in 1994.

The Justice Department said that in 2012, FBI agents searched his hotel rooms during trips to Virginia and Hawaii. They discovered he had two small books containing handwritten information on details such as the true names and numbers of spy recruits and covert CIA employees.

He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. But Lee made his first court appearance on Tuesday before a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn. The judge ordered Lee held without bail.

A federal public defender who represented Lee at Tuesday’s hearing declined to comment.

According to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent, Lee, 53, served in the U.S. Army from 1982 through 1986 and worked for the CIA from 1994 through 2007.

The FBI agent wrote that Lee and his family left Hong Kong in August 2012 to travel to northern Virginia. Along the way, they stayed in hotels where the FBI found the books.

The small books were discovered inside Lee’s luggage, sealed in a small clear plastic travel pack.

The handwritten information inside ranged in terms of classification, but the agent said at least one page contained top secret information, “the disclosure of which could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”

The agent also noted that classified cables Lee wrote while he was a case officer describing his interactions with CIA assets were reflected in the two books.

Lee was interviewed by the FBI five separate times in 2013 and never disclosed he had the books. He also met with former CIA colleagues around that time without returning the materials to the government, the Justice Department said.</s>A former CIA case officer accused of keeping top secret records naming spies and covert addresses was arrested upon entering the country from Hong Kong, authorities said.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, a day after he was nabbed at Kennedy Airport when he cleared customs, officials said.

Authorities say Lee, a case officer for more than a decade with the federal intelligence agency, held onto classified information that included the “true names of assets and covert facilities” after leaving government service in 2007. The Army veteran joined the CIA in 1994, obtained top secret clearance and signed lifetime nondisclosure agreements. He kept the clearance until he left the agency.

Lee, who lives in Hong Kong, made a cameo appearance in federal court Tuesday and remained in custody as he was shipped off to Virginia to face charges of unlawful retention of national defense information. He faces up to 10 years in prison if he’s convicted.

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The ex-officer’s arrest left open the question of what Lee, 53, was planning to do with the sensitive information.

Arrest documents say authorities carried out two searches in August 2012 — one of a hotel room Lee was using in Honolulu and the other, days later, in a Fairfax, Va., hotel room where he was staying. The searches revealed a datebook and address book.

Authorities said Lee possessed classified information ranging from secret to top secret, “the disclosure of which could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”

Officials would not say whether Lee’s arrest stemmed from the 2012 search or if he had the classified information with him at JFK on Monday.</s>US authorities have arrested a former CIA agent, Hong Kong resident Jerry Chun Shing Lee, after discovering he had an unauthorised notebook that contained the identities of undercover US spies.



Lee, a naturalized US citizen also known as Zhen Cheng Li, was arrested late on Monday after he arrived at JFK international airport in New York.

The Department of Justice said Lee, 53, grew up in the United States and served in the US Army before joining the Central Intelligence Agency as a case officer in 1994.

He served in unnamed overseas locations and left the agency in 2007, later apparently taking a job in Hong Kong.

In a complaint filed in a New York federal court, the justice department said that in 2012, FBI agents with court-ordered warrants secretly searched Lee’s luggage while he was travelling in the US and found he was carrying top secret materials he was not authorised to have.

“Agents found two small books containing handwritten notes that contained classified information, including but not limited to, true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations and locations of covert facilities,” the department said.

Lee was charged with unlawful retention of national defense information, a charge that can bring up to 10 years in prison.

Officials did not say why it took so long to bring charges against Lee, or whether he had leaked any materials to foreign countries.

But the case takes place amid concern in the US intelligence community that the Chinese government has been able to cripple their operations in that country.

The New York Times reported last year that starting in 2010, to the end of 2012, the Chinese killed “at least a dozen” sources the CIA had inside China and imprisoned six or more others.

A hunt for a “mole” in the agency led to one person, a “former operative” now living elsewhere in Asia, the Times said. But there was not enough information to arrest him.

But others in the agency blamed sloppy work and not a mole, the Times added.</s>A former CIA officer is accused of illegally possessing classified national defense information and is suspected of spying for China.

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, was arrested Monday night at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, federal authorities said in a press release. Lee, who is also known as Zhen Cheng Li, is also suspected of spying for China, though he is not facing any charges related to that allegation, NBC News reports. Sources told NBC News that Lee has long been under investigation for helping the Chinese government systematically dismantle the CIA’s spying operations in China.

Lee left the CIA in 2007 and had been living in Hong Kong prior to his arrest. Sources told The Washington Post that the FBI did not lure Lee back to the U.S., but he returned for his own reasons. It is not known if Lee has hired an attorney and he could not be reached for comment.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Lee Is Suspected of Giving Information to China That Led to the Death or Imprisonment of About 20 American Agents, Sources Tell NBC News

Sources told NBC News that Jerry Lee is suspected of funneling information to China that caused the deaths or imprisonment of about 20 American agents.

The New York Times reported last May that the Chinese government began to take apart the CIA’s spying operation in 2010, crippling the American intelligence gathering efforts there. Authorities have been investigating what led to the intelligence breach, which the Times called the worst in decades, with some believing a mole within the CIA had betrayed the U.S, while others thought the Chinese had hacked the covert system the CIA used to communicate with its sources.

According to NBC News, a FBI Task Force has been targeting Lee for several years, and have made multiple attempts to incriminate him through undercover operations. They also brought Lee in for a confrontational interview at which he denied being a spy, sources told NBC News.

Sources told NBC News that it is possible that there was a hack, but that it is also clear that Lee was spilling secrets to China.

According to The Washington Post, “People familiar with the matter said that Lee’s arrest would be greeted as cause for celebration among current and former CIA officials. But they said it would be hard to prove in court that Lee had provided the information that proved so damaging to the agency’s operations.”

2. The FBI Says They Found Small Books Containing Handwritten Notes That Included Classified Info, Including True Names of Assets & CIA Employees & Locations of Covert Facilities

Jerry Chun Shing Lee’s arrest stems from two searches the FBI conducted in 2012 when Lee returned to the U.S. from Hong Kong with his family. The court-authorized searches occurred at hotel rooms where Lee was staying in Hawaii and Virginia, according to prosecutors.

The agents “found that Lee was in unauthorized possession of materials relating to the national defense. Specifically, agents found two small books containing handwritten notes that contained classified information, including but not limited to, true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations and locations of covert facilities.”

According to NBC News, the FBI lured Lee back to the United States in 2012 with a phony job offer and then searched his luggage and hotel rooms. No charges were filed at that time and Lee returned to Hong Kong in 2013 after living in Virginia for about a year.

On August 11, 2012, Lee and his family were observed by FBI surveillance teams while they were staying at a hotel in Honolulu. They stayed there until August 14. While there, “a court-authorized search of Lee’s Honolulu hotel room and luggage was conducted. Photographs were taken documenting items in Lee’s possession. A similar search occurred in Fairfax, Virginia, on August 15, while Lee and his family were staying at a hotel there.

The FBI said the searches uncovered Lee was in unauthorized possession of materials relating to the national defense, including classified information, secret information Top Secret information that “could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States”:

A review of photographs taken during the August 13, 2012, search in Hawaii and the August 15, 2012, search in Virginia revealed that, during his stay in both hotels, LEE possessed two small books (the “books”) best described as a datebook and an address book. Each book contained handwritten notes. During both searches the books were located inside LEE’s luggage in a small, clear plastic travel pack. The photographs of the books were reviewed by a CIA classification authority who determined that the books contained classified information. The datebook contained approximately forty-nine pages. Only pages with writing were photographed. The datebook contained handwritten information pertaining to, but not limited to, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations, operational phone numbers, true names of assets, and covert facilities. The address book contained approximately twenty-one pages. The address book contained true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, as well as the addresses of CIA facilities. The CIA classification authority determined that the books contained classified information, up to and including Secret information and, in at least one instance. Top Secret information, the disclosure of which could cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States.

According to court documents, “Classified cables that LEE wrote when he was a case officer, which describe his interactions with assets and information he learned from those meetings, and for which he was the derivative classification authority, contain much of the information reflected in the books.”

 You can read the affidavit here or below:

Lee had a Top Secret security clearance and signed numerous non-disclosure agreements during his years working with the CIA, according to court documents.

During the time Lee spent living in Virginia, the FBI said he remained in possession of the two books found during the Hawaii and Virginia searches, according to court documents. He met with former CIA colleagues and other government employees and remained in contact with those individuals while he was living in the U.S.

“Neither during these meetings nor other opportunities while in northern Virginia, did Lee ever

 surrender or return the books to appropriate U.S. Government officials, as required under the

 NDAs he signed,” the FBI said in court documents. “Nor, in communications with former CIA colleagues and other U.S. Government officials, did he mention that he was in possession of the books. Additionally, Lee was interviewed by FBI agents on five separate occasions in or about May and June 2013 and never suggested that he possessed these books.”

3. Lee, a Naturalized U.S. Citizen, Served in the U.S. Army From 1982 to 1986 Before Attending Hawaii Pacific University

Jerry Lee is a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to court documents. He served in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1986. Further details about his military service were not immediately available.

After leaving the Army, Lee graduated from Hawaii Pacific University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in international business management. He then earned a master’s degree in human resources management a year later, according to court documents.

Public records show that Lee lived in Fairfax, Virginia, before moving to Hong Kong. He has also lived in Harbor City, California, and Tokyo, Japan. His parents, Robert Earl Lee and Emma Lee, who are both deceased, lived in Jackson, Mississippi, but it is not clear if that is where he grew up.

4. He Joined the CIA in 1994 & Had Top Secret Clearance While Working as a Case Officer

Jerry Chun Shing Lee began working for the CIA in 1994 as a case officer. According to court documents, as a case officer, Lee was trained in, “methods of covert communications, surveillance detection, recruitment of assets, handling of assets, payment of assets, operational security, and documenting, handling and securing classified material.”

Lee’s employment in the CIA included various overseas positions and locations, all of which required Top Secret security clearance, according to court documents. He left the CIA in 2007 and his security clearance was terminated at that point.

“In addition to Lee’s Top Secret clearance, he maintained sensitive compartmented information (SCI) access to various sensitive programs. To obtain access to these programs, Lee was required to receive and did receive numerous security clearance briefs during his employment. To acquire his security clearance, Lee signed a life-time binding non disclosure agreement,” according to court documents.

5. Lee, Who Is Not Expected to Face Espionage Charges, Faces Up to 10 Years in Prison if Convicted

Lee made his initial court appearance Tuesday in the Eastern District of New York. The case was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. He is not contesting extradition to Virginia. He was charged with unlawful retention of national defense information.

The FBI said in court documents that, “Having unauthorized possession of the books, which contained documents, writings, and notes related to the national defense, LEE willfully retained the two books and failed to deliver the materials to an officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive them, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e).”

He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

“Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors,” prosecutors said.

“Dana J. Boente, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Andrew W. Vale, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement (of the charges),” according to a press release from federal authorities. “Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Hammerstrom and Deputy Chief Elizabeth Cannon of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.”

Lee is not expected to face espionage charges, NBC News reports. That federal offense carries up to life in prison or the death penalty. Sources told the news network that it is not clear if federal authorities are not seeking the espionage charge because they do not have the evidence or because they do not want to air secrets in an open courtroom.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officer, is arrested at New York's Kennedy International Airport and held without bail by the Brooklyn federal court. He faces charges that, after he left his job, he kept notebooks filled with classified information about undercover agents and assets which he allegedly used to help China identify informants and dismantle a U.S. spying network.