After espionage charges (see earlier reports in April, June, July, November 2003 and January 2004), prosecutors and defense lawyers entered a plea bargain that the former FIB informant Katrina Leung pleaded guilty to a tax count and lying about an affair. U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper on December 15 sentenced Katrina Leung to three years' probation and fined her $10,000 but spared her from serving any time in prison. More serious spy charges were dropped and prosecution's appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the more serious charges will now be withdrawn
Code named Parlor Maid, Leung served as a highly prized FBI operative for 20 years. Smith, head of the FBI's China squad in Los Angeles, until retired in 2000 recruited Leung in 1983 with whom he had sexual relationship. (Source: David Rosenzweig, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 17, 2005).