A Singaporean man Dickson Yeo Jun Wei has been sentence to jail for 14 months in the United States for spying for China.

Light sentence

His sentence on Oct. 9, 2020 is considered light as it took into consideration his cooperation with U.S. authorities and the threat of contracting Covid-19 while locked up.

Yeo is considered to have already served 11 months in prison as he was arrested in November 2019 and kept behind bars.

2015 to 2019

He pleaded guilty in July and admitted to operating illegally as a foreign agent in the U.S.

He was accused of using his political consultancy in the U.S. to collect information for Chinese intelligence services.

Yeo, a former National University of Singapore (NUS) PhD student, had recruited U.S. military personnel to provide classified political and defense information to China.

He admitted to working for Chinese intelligence between 2015 and 2019.

His lawyer Michelle Peterson had asked for approximately 13 months jail for Yeo.

Lonely and broke

Peterson had described how Yeo was lonely, broke and floundering academically when he was first approached by Chinese intelligence as an NUS student in 2005.

“The Chinese gave him more respect and dignity for the work he was doing that he was able to obtain from his efforts at academia," she said.

Peterson added that Yeo was attracted to China and its ability to uplift millions from poverty with industrial policy, leading him to be easily influenced.

He was directed to establish a political consultancy in the U.S., which would be used by Yeo as a front to collect intelligence.

Yeo's modus operandi involved posting job listings for the company on an online job search website.

The lawyer had argued for leniency by stressing that Yeo's professional reputation was in ruins and that he wanted nothing more than to return to a quiet life with his parents.

Yeo's candidature with NUS where he was sitting for his PhD, has been cancelled.

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