Alexander Yuk Ching Ma admitted that the information he provided in 2001 “would be used to harm the United States or benefit” Chinese authorities.

A former CIA officer pleaded guilty on Friday to spying for China, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, originally from Hong Kong and a naturalized U.S. citizen, confessed to sharing “a large volume of classified U.S. national defense information” with Chinese officials in 2001, despite having left the CIA 12 years earlier.

According to the Justice Department, Ma’s meeting with the Shanghai State Security Bureau was arranged by another former CIA officer, Ma’s blood relative and also a naturalized American, referred to as “co-conspirator #1” in the agency’s statement.

At the conclusion of the three-day meeting in a Hong Kong hotel, Chinese intelligence officers gave CC #1 $50,000 in cash, which Ma counted, the statement revealed.

“Ma and CC #1 also agreed at that time to continue assisting” Chinese intelligence.

In 2003, Ma was hired by the FBI in Hawaii as a linguist “as part of an investigative plan, to work at an off-site location where his activities could be monitored” and his interactions with China could be investigated.

In 2006, Ma “convinced CC #1 to provide the identities of at least two individuals shown in photographs given to Ma” by Chinese intelligence.

Ma admitted that the information he shared in 2001 and afterwards “would be used to harm the United States or benefit” Chinese authorities.

Ma worked for the FBI until 2012, but the statement did not clarify how he was eventually discovered.