> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Wife of suspected spy sentenced - URL: https://www.smdp.com/wife-of-suspected-spy-sentenced/ - Published: 2003-09-23T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T02:58:57.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Charges against John Yai to be heard by jury* A Santa Monica woman on Monday was ordered by a federal judge to serve one year of probation and pay $500 for illegally bringing $18,000 into the United States. The sentence is the minimum possible under a plea bargain for Susan Youngja Yai. Earlier this summer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office dismissed three other charges she faced. “(U.S. District Judge George H. King) recognized that this is a person who is otherwise extremely law abiding,” said her attorney, Paul Loh. “She’s done everything on the up and up, and made one mistake.” Loh said Yai, whose husband John Joungwoong Yai, is accused of working as a spy for the North Korean government, was emotionally distraught by the charges and is eager to put the case behind her. She was initially charged with failing to report more than $10,000 to U.S. Custom officials, plus two counts of making false statements to customs officials and one count of conspiring to make false statements to custom officials. Had Susan Yai been convicted on all four counts, she faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release and $250,000 in fines, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said. With the case now behind her, Susan Yai will focus her energy on the charges facing her husband, whose case is scheduled to be heard by a jury this fall, Loh said. John Yai is free on $400,000 bond, who was arrested in February at his home, 909 Grant St. in the Ocean Park neighborhood. The couple said they did not list the $18,000 they carried because, when split between the two, it fell under $10,000, which is the maximum amount of cash that can be brought in the United States and not declared. The Yais told customs officials they had taken the money with them to buy jewelry for their children but decided to bring it back because the prices and selection were not as good in Switzerland as they’d hoped. But the Yais later reneged that explanation after the FBI produced taped telephone conversations between the Yais that allegedly detailed a string of conversations aimed at fabricating their story. The Yais won’t say where the money came from, Loh said, adding that the information is not important or relevant. However, the FBI alleges John Yai was paid by North Korea to recruit spies in the U.S., and the couple had traveled to the Czech Republic and Vienna to meet with a North Korean representative during the same April 2000 trip. John Yai, who until recently owned Bon Appetit, a snack shop on Wilshire Boulevard near 18th Street, pleaded innocent to the charges earlier this year. The FBI monitored him for eight years before arresting him. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in jail. Though John Yai, a native of South Korea, allegedly provided information to North Korean officials that was already public from newspaper articles and the Internet. But North Korean government officials allegedly instructed him to obtain and send them classified information, and under no circumstances continue to feed them information already made public. Loh said he doesn’t know what Susan Yai plans to do now. He said the ordeal has been traumatic for her and her two children — one a Stanford graduate, the other studying law on the East Coast. “As you can imagine, it’s been a stressful experience for her,” he said. “Her primary goals are two fold — one, to be there for her kids and, two, to support her husband, whose case is ongoing.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 23, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092303.pdf?ref=smdp.com)