Former CIA officer charged with selling secrets to China

A former Central Intelligence Agency officer was arrested Thursday on charges he sold top-secret documents to China. Authorities arrested Kevin Mallory, 60, at his home in Leesburg, Va. Mallory, an Army veteran and former special agent who held top-secret security clearance until 2012, traveled to Shanghai in April. Customs agents interviewed him because he failed to declare $16,500 in cash found in his two carry-on bags. During a May interview with the FBI, Mallory admitted he met with two people from a Chinese think tank and was given a communications device for transmitting documents. He said he only sent two unclassified documents, according to an affidavit. But FBI agents later found four classified documents on the device, including three with a top-secret classification. They also found messages between Mallory and the suspected Chinese agent, one in which Mallory wrote, “Your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid.” Mallory is charged under the federal Espionage Act and could face life in prison. If certain conditions are met, the charges could make Mallory eligible for the death penalty.

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