Feds: Jenison man lied on CIA job app

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A former Jenison man accused of lying to the CIA about allegedly taking $70,000 from Chinese intelligence agents was introduced to that country nearly a decade ago, while a student at Grand Valley State University.

Glenn Duffie Shriver, 28, who used the alias "Du Fei," is in federal custody in Detroit, facing charges of lying to the CIA while trying to get a U.S. national security job.

Thad Domick, Shriver's former roommate in a GVSU study abroad progam known as "China Summer School" was shocked by the allegation, but could see how it could happen."It makes me wonder maybe he met some people, maybe they turned him somehow," he told 24 Hour News 8.

An indictment alleges Shriver lied by failing to disclose that he had traveled to China in 2007 -- six years after the GVSU trip -- that he had met "numerous" times with Chinese intelligence officers and that they had paid him $70,000.

The indictment doesn't say what kind of national security job he was seeking, or why the Chinese allegedly paid him.

"I have trouble believing that any American would do that," Domick told 24 Hour News 8.

His mom, Karen Chavez, of Jenison, told WDIV-TV in Detroit that her son is "a good kid. He loves the United States. He thought he was applying for a job to help and use his skills for the United States."

Shriver and Domick were roommates for 6 to 8 weeks in the summer of 2001 in Shanghai. They were among 25 to 30 GVSU students on the trip, accompanied by professors, studying Chinese philosophy and geography, Domick said.

Facebook photos from that trip show Shriver posing with classmates at the Stone Forest near Kunming, Yunnan.

"The country did seem to grow on him a little bit, but it grew on a lot of us," Domick said.

But, his former roommate says he can't imagine an opportunity back then to meet with intelligence officers.

"We would meet with local students, but most of it, I can't recall any time where any of us would have been alone," Domick said.

Another former classmate from that trip says Shriver returned to China several years later to teach English. He had been most recently living in South Korea, where he was engaged to marry.

Former neighbors in Jenison told 24 Hour News 8 that they hadn't seen Shriver for three or four years. A neighbor said he last heard he was living in California and that he was trying to get a law enforcement job in Los Angeles.

Shriver has no criminal record in Michigan, according to the state police.