Larry Wu-Tai Chin

Larry Wu-tai Chin (Chinese: 金無怠; Pinyin: Jīn Wúdài; 1918–February 22, 1986) was a former Chinese language translator working for the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. He sold classified documents to the People's Republic of China from 1952 to 1985.

Biography

Chin served as a Chinese linguist in the US Army during the Korean War, at which time he is believed to have first come into contact with Chinese intelligence. He may have supplied the Chinese with information about prisoners of war captured by American, South Korean, and allied forces. According to this scenario, Chinese and North Korean forces exploited Chin's information to perform successful combat search and rescue missions on American camps to retrieve North Korean POWs.

Following Chin's military enlistment he applied to and was accepted by the CIA, where he continued his espionage for China. During his long term as a spy, Chin is now regarded as having been lavishly compensated for his services. His skill at laundering those espionage profits is reputed to be without peer. Chin purchased apartments and tenements in the low-income section of Baltimore, Maryland and made huge gains as a slumlord. Chin also cultivated the persona of a womanizer with a gambling addiction. It was later believed that while Chin did indeed show signs of compulsive gambling, that he did not so much apply his espionage profits towards financing gambling junkets; rather he used the cultivated persona of a high roller to help cover up his unexplained affluence from espionage as gambling winnings. Some CIA co-workers noted suspicious behavior concerns Chin's lifestyle did not match up with what a CIA salary could afford, but this was dismissed largely by friends and co-workers who gambled with Chin and would occasionally see him indeed win at gambling. Not once during Chin's tenure in the Army or CIA was he suspected of espionage or placed under investigation. In fact, in 1980 Chin was awarded a medal from the CIA for his long and distinguished service. Only five years later did any allegation of espionage arise. In 1985 Larry Chin had charges prepared against him for espionage on behalf of China.

In 1986 Chin was sentenced to a lengthy prison term for espionage and tax evasion. Chin admitted to the espionage, but he also claimed his deeds were intended to pursue reconciliation between Red China and the United States. Chin stated he would fully cooperate with debriefings in an effort to avoid further charges, yet on the day of his sentencing, when prison guards arrived at Chin's cell to transport him to court, they found him lifeless with a garbage bag over his head. An autopsy concluded that Chin had committed suicide in his cell.

Given Chin's money laundering skills, it is unknown how much money the Chinese paid him for his spying. Chin had rolled over most of his espionage income into real estate, as was evidenced by his purchases of low-income housing. However, it is believed that Chin's proceeds exceeded $1 million, making him one of only five American spies to have made such a large amount by espionage. Aldrich Ames, Clyde Conrad, Robert Hanssen and John Walker are the other four.

Sources

* http://web.archive.org/web/20060428112554/http://www.dss.mil/training/espionage/Cia.htm#CHIN,%20LARRY%20WU-TAI
* http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960791,00.html