380: James Gaylord - China's Family of Spies (Part 2) Chasing Chi

In part two of this two-part episode, retired agent Jim Gaylord reviews his espionage investigation and the prosecution of Chi Mak, his family members and associates as spies for the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Chi was an engineer who had immigrated from Kwang-Tung, China, and was employed with a U.S. company designing sensitive U.S. military and commercial technologies. Jim was assigned to determine if Chi was stealing U.S. Navy secrets from his employer. He shares evidence made public when the classified investigation became a criminal case.

Jim worked this case with retired NCIS agent Gunnar Newquist. Together with the assistance of Jim’s squad, they produced six convictions, long-term unprecedented sentences and denial of all appeals, marking this as the most successful prosecution of PRC spies ever.

Jim is the author of Chasing Chi: The FBI’s Groundbreaking Pursuit of China’s Most Prolific Spy Family. This true-life story highlights behind-the-curtain intrigues, obstacles, betrayals, and hard-won victories, while overcoming bureaucratic friction, cowardice, jeopardizing efforts to break the FBI’s historic string of espionage failures. It’s a fascinating spy thriller detailing Chi Mak’s betrayal. Learn more at his website, ChasingChiBook.com.

“We’ve got him convicted. A month later, we’ve got the trial for the other four. We’re all prepared. We’re all ready. And the executives United States Attorney’s office have decided they’re going to plead out everything else without asking the bureau, refusing to hear our opinions on any of it. They settled, and the reason they settled is they were afraid of losing, even though we won with the big guy.”

“One of the reasons I wrote the book is frustration with the prosecutor’s office. There’s a real imbalance of power. The FBI does 95 percent or more of the work and then presents it. With so many espionage cases before and since, they settle it and they give like three years or six years in jail. I wanted Chi to spend the rest of his life in jail because he had it all up in his head. He could write the whole diagram of a destroyer if you put a piece of paper in front of him. That’s what his friend said. If he got off with a few years, he would go back to China; he would still pass on all that knowledge. I wanted him in jail where he couldn’t share it, and that’s where most of these people should be. Instead, they plea bargained them down to three years, six years. And that is frustrating to me.”—Retired Agent James Gaylord

Special Agent (Retired)

James E. Gaylord

7/1985 – 3/2017

Jim Gaylord served in the FBI for over 31 years. His first assignment was to the Minneapolis Field Office’s organized crime squad. He was next detailed to the U.S. Army’s Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California to learn Vietnamese, to prepare for his move to the counterintelligence and terrorism squad at the Santa Ana Resident Agency (SARA-4) out of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. Jim worked primarily within the Little Saigon District.

In addition to being designated the case agent on the Chi Mak case, Jim conducted and supervised several other high-profile espionage investigations. During his last six years in the Bureau, he served as SARA-4’s supervisor until he reached mandatory retirement.

Jim and SARA-4 squad members received the 2006 U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the 2010 U.S. Attorneys’ Executive Office Director’s Award for Superior Performance, the 2011 Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Meritorious Unit Commendation, the 2008 and 2009 Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citations, the 2008 and 2009 Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office Outstanding Service Awards, and 2008 and 2010 FBI Los Angeles Performance Awards.

He and other SARA-4 members have been interviewed for various magazine articles and television broadcasts by The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, CNN’s Declassified, CNBC’s Crime Inc., and U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) training videos. Jim has delivered hundreds of case briefings to academic, governmental, and professional organizations around the world.