Chinese Famous Chinese Americans

Karistina Leung Wikipedia

Katrina Leung(陳文英) is a Chinese American native of Los Angeles, California who is a businesswoman and an accused espionage|spy. Leung has earned degrees from Cornell University and the University of Chicago, and is an important figure in the Los Angeles Chinese-American community, having helped raise money for the campaigns of several prominent United States Republican Party|Republican party candidates. In the early 1980s she was recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI's Los Angeles office chief of China|Chinese counter-intelligence, James J. Smith, and given the code name "Parlor Maid". Working with Smith, Leung became a valued information asset and was paid $1.7 million for her services over the years.

Eventually Leung and Smith, both married, began a 20 year sexual affair. Leung had access to classified information|classified FBI documents Smith would bring to their trysts, and in early 2003 was arrested and charged with working as a double agent for the People's Republic of China government. FBI officials say they will have to re-evualate a decade's worth of counter-intelligence work as a result of the charges against her. Smith has been arrested and charged with gross negligence. Leung also had an affair with William Cleveland Jr., a former FBI agent and chief of counter-intelligence at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Since her arrest, Leung's family has maintained her innocence, and in a press statement compared her plight to nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee, who after being accused of nuclear espionage, was eventually acquitted of all major charges.

Last Modified:   2005-02-25