SINGAPORE, June 15 — A 40-year-old Singaporean who was previously jailed in the United States for spying for China has been served with a detention order under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for acting as a paid agent of a foreign state.
In a press release today (June 15), the Internal Security Department (ISD) said that it had served the order on Dickson Yeo on Jan 29, and his continued detention is necessary to facilitate an investigation into the full extent of his activities.
Yeo, who was a PhD student of public policy at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), was arrested by the ISD on Dec 30 last year upon his deportation from the United States, after he had served out a 14-month jail sentence for acting within the US as an illegal agent of a foreign power without first notifying the Attorney General.
When he was arrested, the ISD had said that he would be interviewed to establish if he had engaged in activities prejudicial to Singapore’s security.
In its update today, the ISD said that its investigations have established that Yeo was tasked to source information and provide reports on issues of interest to his foreign handlers, including information relating to Singapore.
The ISD did not name the country that these foreign handlers were from.
Yeo had approached various individuals in Singapore in an attempt to obtain information for the purpose of writing his reports, the ISD added.
He had set up a front company in Singapore as a cover for his information-gathering activities as well as recruitment for his foreign handlers.
Yeo had even tried, but failed, to secure employment in the Singapore government to further such activities, the ISD said.
The agency added that Yeo had carried out these activities from 2016 until his arrest in the US in 2019.
Yeo has also since admitted to having worked for the intelligence apparatus of a foreign state and carrying out various tasks given to him by his foreign handlers in exchange for monetary gains, the ISD said.
He admitted to being fully aware that his foreign handlers were working for the intelligence apparatus of the foreign state as well, it added.
The ISD said: “The Singapore government takes a very serious view of anyone who enters into a clandestine relationship with a foreign government and engages in activities at the behest of the foreign power that is inimical to our national security and interests, including bilateral relations.”
According to Yeo’s US court documents, he had provided classified information to China by using his US-based political consultancy as a front for Chinese intelligence services between 2015 and 2019.
To do so, Yeo hired US military and government insiders with high security clearances to write reports for his consultancy, telling them they were meant for his clients in Asia.
Instead, Yeo sent the reports that he thought contained interesting information to his China handlers.
Yeo is the second LKYSPP member found to have been acting on behalf of a foreign state after Professor Huang Jing, who happened to be Yeo’s PhD supervisor.
Prof Huang was a former LKYSPP professor who was expelled by Singapore in 2017 for acting as a foreign agent of influence.
US court documents stated that Yeo was recruited by Chinese intelligence during his time in NUS.
Prof Huang has denied recruiting Yeo, whose candidature at LKYSPP was terminated after the US court charged him for working as a foreign agent. ― TODAY
