www.FARA.us

Just two weeks before jury selection was scheduled to begin, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council official the Department of Justice had charged in July 2024 with acting as an unregistered agent of the South Korean government. The agreement puts the prosecution on hold for 12 months and, if Terry complies with its terms, ends it entirely. The resolution closes a closely watched FARA prosecution, and results in part from a robust and able effort by Terry’s legal defense team.

Terry served in the U.S. government as a CIA analyst on East Asian issues, as Director for Korea, Japan, and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council, and as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council. After leaving government, she became a prominent voice on Korea policy in Washington, holding posts at a series of think tanks, publishing widely, and testifying before Congress.

The 2024 indictment alleged that after her government service, Terry acted at the direction of officers of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (“NIS”), advocating South Korean policy positions, disclosing nonpublic U.S. government information, and providing South Korean officials access to U.S. officials. The centerpiece allegation was that in June 2022, immediately after an off-the-record meeting between Korea policy experts and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Terry’s alleged NIS “handler” picked her up in a car bearing South Korean Embassy diplomatic plates, where she handed over detailed handwritten notes of the meeting that the handler photographed. In return, the indictment alleged, NIS officers bought her luxury goods (a Bottega Veneta handbag, a Louis Vuitton handbag, and a Dolce & Gabbana coat), treated her to meals at Michelin-starred restaurants, and deposited approximately $37,000 into an account at her think-tank employer. She was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate FARA and one count of failing to register under FARA, each carrying a maximum of five years in prison.

The case was set for trial before Judge Lorna G. Schofield when the parties filed the four-page agreement.

The agreement itself is relatively sparse. Prosecutors offered no explanation beyond the standard recital that deferral best serves the interests of the United States and the defendant. The agreement’s conditions require Terry to remain in the continental United States, avoid knowingly communicating with any NIS officer or employee, refuse any gift worth more than $100 from a foreign government, and file a FARA registration to the extent she engages in FARA-registrable activity. If Terry fully complies with the agreement, no further prosecution will be brought for these offenses.

Although the agreement does not require Terry to admit guilt, it attaches an Agreed Statement of Facts that tracks many of the indictment’s factual allegations in more muted and neutral terms.

The Terry resolution is the second high-profile FARA matter in recent years to end in a deferred prosecution agreement rather than a plea or verdict, following the January 2024 deferred prosecution agreements with Barry Bennett and Douglas Watts. The Bennett and Watts agreements were far less favorable than the Terry agreement, though. Bennett consented to a two-count information charging a scheme to falsify, conceal, and cover up material facts from the Department and the making of false statements and material omissions in FARA filings. He also agreed to pay $100,000, correct submitted FARA filings, and refrain from FARA-registrable conduct for 18 months. Watts consented to a three-count information charging willful failure to register and making false statements. He also agreed to pay $25,000, file an accurate and complete registration, and refrain from FARA-registrable conduct for 12 months.

For more information regarding FARA, please contact us using our online form.