Update | US man may face execution, accused of sending secrets to Chinese spies with illicit communications device

Former US agent Kevin Mallory was allegedly caught with undeclared stacks of cash after a trip to Shanghai, where he is accused of meeting suspected Chinese spies who gave him secret device to send documents

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Published: 6:57am, 23 Jun 2017Updated: 10:00pm, 23 Jun 2017

A Virginia man who was caught with stacks of cash in his carry-on bag after a trip to China may face execution in the US after he was charged Thursday with transmitting top-secret documents to an apparent Chinese agent using an illicit communications device.

Kevin Mallory, 60, of Leesburg was arrested Thursday and made an initial appearance in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The self-employed consultant who speaks fluent Mandarin is charged under the federal Espionage Act and could face life in prison, or, if certain conditions are met, the death penalty, prosecutor John Gibbs said at Mallory’s initial appearance.

Court records indicate that Mallory was an Army veteran and worked as a special agent for the Diplomatic Security Service at the US State Department from 1987 to 1990. Since 1990, he has worked for a variety of government agencies and defence contractors, according to the affidavit. He held a Top Secret security clearance until he left government service in 2012.

FBI agents raid the home of Kevin Mallory on Thursday, outside Washington. Photo: ABC 7

According to the affidavit, Mallory traveled to Shanghai in April, and was interviewed by Customs agents at O’Hare Airport in Chicago after he failed to declare US$16,500 in cash found in two carry-on bags.

Your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid

An alleged message from Kevin Mallory to a suspected Chinese spy

The FBI interviewed him the next month, and he admitted that he met with two people from a Chinese think-tank, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, that he now believed were Chinese intelligence agents. He said they had given him a special communications device for transmitting documents.

According to the affidavit, Mallory told the FBI agents that the only documents he transferred were two unclassified “white papers” he had written on US policy matters, for which he said he was paid US$25,000.