Jerry Chun Shing Lee, A former CIA agent of the British auction house, currently in US custody for suspected of spying for China, has been suspended by Christie’s in Hong Kong.
Jerry Chun Shing is Hong Kong resident and US citizen arrested on suspicion of keeping classified information, including the names of informants in China. He had been working with the auction house for the last 20 months and was “focused on physical security for the firm’s facilities and staff”, according to the firm.
“We can confirm we have suspended a Hong Kong employee pending a criminal investigation,” a Christie’s spokesman told the Post.
Lee had kept a low profile while in Hong Kong. He was known to few people in the city and had virtually no digital footprint.
He did not maintain any internet presence under his name in English or Chinese, or under an alternative spelling Zhen Cheng Li. He may have used an alias or avoided using public internet accounts altogether.
Apparently, he operated here in Hong Kong very discreetly and not many people knew him,” said former police superintendent Clement Lai Ka-chi, who had a brief encounter with Jerry Chun Shing Lee in the past.
“I am not surprised,” was his comment on suspicions that Lee might have leaked sensitive information to Beijing.
He settled in Hong Kong after leaving the CIA and returned after a brief stint in the US in 2013. Lee was arrested after stepping off a Cathay Pacific flight to New York in a visit that reportedly surprised US agents investigating him.
He was charged with unlawful retention of national defence information, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
While there are suspicions that Lee might have played a key role in Beijing’s dismantling of the American spy network in China, he is not facing any charges related to such allegations.
>Juthy Saha
Arrested CIA Agent Suspended from Security Job in Hong Kong
