(Minghui.org) The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Florida telecommunications and information technology engineer Ping Li pleaded guilty to conspiracy in acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). If convicted, the charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. District Court Judge Natalie Hirt Adams referred Li’s guilty plea to a federal district judge. Once the guilty plea is formally accepted, a sentencing date will be set.
Ping Li pleaded guilty to acting as a CCP agent on August 23, 2024. (Mugshot courtesy Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)
The Tampa Bay Times reported on August 23, “A Pasco County man admitted in court Friday that he acted for years as an agent of the Chinese government, providing information to a foreign intelligence officer about Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy advocates, members of the Falun Gong religious movement, and U.S. companies and organizations.
“A plea agreement filed in court this week details some of the emails that Ping Li exchanged over a 12-year period with an officer with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the country’s intelligence service. Although much of the information shared was publicly accessible and benign, some included discussions about computer hacking and cybersecurity information at companies where Li worked.
“Li, 59, pleaded guilty Friday to a single federal charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the attorney general. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.”
Federal agents arrested Li last month after a grand jury handed him an indictment detailing allegations that he used multiple email accounts containing false user information to communicate with an official from China’s Ministry of State Security over many years. The official was identified in court records only as “Ministry of State Security Official 1.”
Under the plea agreement, Li initially only admitted to providing information about investing in the stock market to the Ministry of State Security official. Federal agents then showed Li copies of emails he exchanged with the Chinese official.
In emails between Li and Chinese officials in the summer of 2012, Li provided them with the name and personal information of a lawyer in St. Petersburg. The lawyer, who was not identified in court records, wrote a blog for a Falun Gong-related publication.
In a follow-up email, the Chinese official asked Li Ping for more information.
The plea agreement also describes Li’s numerous interactions with Chinese officials in the following years. At the request of Chinese officials, Li provided information about two Israeli authors of Falun Gong books, an unnamed American company, and its president and his wife.
Li also provided Chinese officials with information about a male Falun Gong practitioner who participated in a protest in front of the Chinese Consulate in California, including his address, phone number, and the make and model of his car.
In late 2014, Li traveled to China to meet with the CCP official.
The final communication mentioned in the plea agreement involved a man who the CCP official said committed “some crime” and fled to the United States. He provided the man’s address in California. Li responded with detailed information about the man’s California property, including photos of the house and the name of the owner.
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