A high-profile foreign policy analyst and former CIA officer has been charged with serving as a secret agent for South Korea’s intelligence service in exchange for luxury goods including expensive handbags.
South Korean intelligence officers allegedly provided Sue Mi Terry with Bottega Veneta and Louis Vuitton handbags, a Dolce and Gabbana coat, dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants, and more than $37,000 in “covert” funding for a public policy programme on Korean affairs that she ran.
According to an indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan, in exchange she advocated South Korean government positions in the media, shared non-public information with intelligence officers and facilitated access for South Korean officials to their US government counterparts.
Ms Terry, who also previously held a senior position at the US National Security Council, has denied the charges through her lawyer.
The court case details how her work as an agent allegedly began in 2013, two years after she left US government employment, and lasted a decade.
She has since worked at well-known think tanks, including most recently the Council on Foreign Relations, where she has become a prominent commentator on Korean Peninsula and East Asian affairs.
The charges are part of a growing effort by the Justice Department to counter foreign influence in American affairs, which has resulted in dozens of prosecutions in recent years.