Calling her a flight risk and potential threat to national security, a federal magistrate denied bail Tuesday to Katrina Leung, a longtime FBI informer accused of working as a Chinese double agent.
U.S. Magistrate Victor Kenton ordered the wealthy San Marino businesswoman jailed at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center pending her trial on a charge of illegally obtaining classified documents from her FBI handler, with whom she carried on a 20-year sexual relationship.
The agent, James J. Smith, now retired, was charged with gross negligence in the handling of national security documents and freed on $250,000 bond following his arrest April 9 along with Leung.
During a four-hour hearing before Kenton on Tuesday, Leung's lawyers argued that she was more deserving of bail than Smith.
At one point, defense attorney Janet Levine wondered aloud whether prosecutors were motivated by prejudice in seeking detention for Leung, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Rebecca Lonergan denounced the suggestion as outrageous and untrue. Lonergan contended that if allowed to go free on bond, Leung might flee to China, where she has friends in high places and which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
Although Leung, 49, and her family had offered to post as much as $2 million in property to secure her freedom, Lonergan argued that the defendant had possibly millions of dollars stashed away in hidden foreign bank accounts, money she could use if she chose to flee.
The prosecutor described Leung's foreign assets as "enormous and complex," and charged that the suspect had concealed her overseas earnings in her annual U.S. tax returns.
Lonergan also asserted that while working as a paid informant, Leung made about 15 overseas trips between 1989 and 2002 without telling her FBI handler.
And just last month, the prosecutor said, Leung was offered a five-year visa to China during a meeting with the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
But defense attorney Levine and co-counsel John Vandevelde accused the government of distorting the facts about Leung's conduct.
Levine said that Leung has had opportunities to flee since December, when FBI agents searched her home and interviewed her at length over seven days.
