Katrina Leung (simplified Chinese: 陈文英; traditional Chinese: 陳文英; pinyin: Chén Wényīng; born 1954) is a former high value Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant and Ministry of State Security (MSS) agent who, on April 9, 2003, was indicted by the United States Department of Justice for "Unauthorized copying of national defense information with intent to injure or benefit a foreign nation".
Her case was later dismissed on January 6, 2005, because of prosecutorial misconduct, but an appeal by the U.S. Attorney resulted in a plea bargain of guilty to lesser charges on December 16, 2005.
She was alleged by the United States government to have contaminated twenty years of intelligence relating to the People's Republic of China, as well as critically compromising the FBI's Chinese counterintelligence program.
She was appointed by philanthropist Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson as President of the Los Angeles-Guangzhou Sister City Committee[1] and raised funds for the Republican Party.
In 1980, Leung moved to Los Angeles and occupied an apartment building which contained numerous tenants that were subjects of other FBI investigations.
Leung became the general manager of an import-export company which in late 1980 had become the subject of an FBI investigation dealing with the illegal transfer of technology from the U.S. to the PRC.
Smith was so impressed with the information Leung provided that he converted her into an FBI asset codename "Parlor Maid" in December of the same year.
The FBI headquarters chief questioned Leung's handler Smith, who denied the allegations and successfully convinced his superior that she would never do such a thing without his authorization.
In response, she told him that her Chinese handler "Mao" had discovered her double-agent identity and had coerced her into giving additional information.
Special Agent William Cleveland, Jr. was brought in to listen to the tape and immediately recognized the woman's voice as Leung's.
In addition to the analyst’s recommendations, Smith defended the suspicious activities of Leung and managed to convince his superiors that terminating her as an asset was not the best course of action.
[7] She was not charged with either treason or espionage presumably because her prosecutors did not feel they had adequate evidence to guarantee a conviction that historically had been notoriously difficult to secure.
Leung was sentenced to the terms of her plea agreement, which stated that she must cooperate in full debriefings, three years probation, 100 hours of community service, and a US$10,000 fine.