An American journalist and writer admitted in federal court Thursday that he served as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, the latest in a string of U.S. prosecutions of people accused of failing to register their work on behalf of Beijing.
Thomas Pauken II, 59, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the attorney general, the Justice Department said. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 1 and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Pauken has lived in China since 2010 and worked for several state-controlled media organizations. He writes under the pen name Tom McGregor, a name he adopted to distinguish himself from his father, Thomas Pauken Sr., a former chairman of the Texas Republican Party in the 1990s who ran for governor of the state in 1990.
The Justice Department did not provide details in its announcement about the specific actions Pauken took as part of the conspiracy or which Chinese state media outlets he worked for.
The case is part of a broader push by U.S. law enforcement against individuals suspected of acting on behalf of the Chinese government without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In May, Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for China. Federal prosecutors accused Wang of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, including by sharing articles favorable to the Beijing government.
MSI previously reported on Wang’s guilty plea and resignation from office last month. Other recent cases include the conviction in May of a man accused of running an illegal Chinese police outpost in New York City, and a guilty plea by a California man in February who was sentenced to four years in prison for acting as a Chinese agent.