A Virginia man was charged Thursday with giving top-secret documents to a Chinese agent and could face life in prison, if convicted.
Kevin Mallory, 60, of Leesburg, Va., appeared in court in Alexandria, Va., after he was arrested Thursday, the Justice Department said Thursday.
“The conduct alleged in this complaint is serious, and these charges should send a message to anyone who would consider violating the public’s trust and compromising our national security by disclosing classified information,” Dana Boente, acting assistant attorney general for national security and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia said.
Mallory told the FBI during an interview in May he traveled to Shanghai in March and April, and met with people he believed were working for the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, a Chinese think tank.
The FBI said Chinese intelligence officers have affiliated themselves with the think tank as a cover since 2014.
Mallory then allowed the FBI to look at a device he used to communicate with one of the individuals, and agents found a message from Mallory stating he had blacked out security classification markings on documents he gave to the person.
The FBI also found a handwritten index listing eight different documents, four of which were stored on the device.
Three of those documents contained classified information—one was classified top secret, and the remaining two were marked secret.
Mallory, a self-employed consultant with GlobalEx, was charged under the Espionage Act. If convicted, he faces a maximum life sentence.
The 60-year-old speaks Chinese and is an Army veteran. He also worked at the State Department as a special agent for the Diplomatic Security Service.
