|
Chinese double agent head world affairs council Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030411/62107.htmlhttp://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030411/62107.html
Woman accused of being double agent known as Chinese-American activist
ERICA WERNER
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES ---- She allegedly lived a secret life as a double agent for the Chinese government, but the woman the FBI code-named "Parlor Maid" also lived a very public one in Republican and Chinese-American circles, friends and associates said Thursday.
"Basically you see her everywhere," said Paul Zee, a businessman and former mayor of South Pasadena who is active in the Chinese-American community.
Authorities say Katrina Leung, 49, was recruited to work for the FBI in the early 1980s and soon began an affair with her handler, former supervisory special agent James J. Smith, 59.
She would copy classified documents he left unattended when he came to debrief her at the posh home she shared with her husband and their son in wealthy San Marino, according to a prosecution affidavit.
The FBI paid her some $1.7 million over 20 years to act as an informer and during that time Leung allegedly also had an affair with a second FBI agent, whom officials did not identify. The second agent learned of Leung's unauthorized contacts with officials in Beijing and alerted Smith, but Smith continued his relationship with Leung, authorities said.
Leung was charged Wednesday with obtaining a classified national security document for purposes of aiding a foreign nation. Smith was charged with gross negligence for allowing Leung to obtain the documents. They could face up to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors said they found FBI documents at Leung's home including phone directories and a secret 1997 memorandum about Chinese fugitives that contained "national defense information." The affidavit noted that an FBI agent secretly searched her luggage when she left Los Angeles for China in November and found six photographs of current and former FBI agents. The photos were not found when the luggage was secretly searched again upon her return.
Attorneys for both denied the accusations, and Leung's acquaintances said they were stunned.
"It's very shocking, of course. In fact I could never have even imagined such a thing," said Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, who frequently saw Leung at community events.
Leung was viewed as energetic and competent. She was an accomplished translator of English, Mandarin and Cantonese and was called on to serve as master of ceremonies at events.
Acquaintances did puzzle over the frequent presence of Smith, whom Leung sometimes introduced as "my good friend from the FBI."
"He came to quite a few Chinese-American events and I always wondered what the FBI was doing at those events," Chu said. "It seemed strange."
The house Leung and her husband, Kam, own has four stone lions around a fountain, and a pool and guest house. A paper Chinese dragon hung from a tree Thursday and a yellow ribbon was wrapped around the trunk.
The two worked as consultants, and Katrina Leung brought neighbors cookies and cake at Christmas.
"She's a great neighbor," said Allene Nunzesser, who lives two doors down. "There was absolutely nothing particularly unusual about them."
Leung worked with many Chinese-American groups, holding past positions as secretary of the National Association of Chinese Americans and as president of the Los Angeles-Guangzhou Sister City committee.
A naturalized American citizen and a registered Republican, she donated money to Republicans including Rep. David Dreier and failed GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon, as well as some Asian-American Democrats including Chu, records show. She raised funds for Simon and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.
Dreier named her as a delegate to the California Republican Party convention in February.
"She was strongly supportive, an Asian-American woman, very enthusiastic," said Dreier, R-San Dimas. San Marino was drawn into Dreier's district last year, and he first met Leung at a Riordan fund-raiser at her home.
She accompanied Riordan on a trip to China in 1998 and joined up with Mayor James Hahn's delegation when he went to China last year.
For three months she has been a director of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. Its 65 board members also include Walt Disney & Co. Chairman Michael Eisner and former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
Leung and her husband donated about $25,000 last year to candidates for state office, mostly in one $10,000 donation to Riordan.
According to the federal affidavit, Leung has admitted setting up bank accounts in Hong Kong to which she pretended to make mortgage payments on the home she purchased about 12 years ago for $1.4 million, though she was actually paying herself. That enabled her to claim mortgage interest tax deductions after she had actually paid off her mortgage.
4/11/03
|
|
