US engineer guilty of exporting military data to China

A Chinese-born US engineer was on Thursday found guilty of conspiracy to smuggle sensitive technology about US Navy submarines to China following a six-week trial in California.

Chi Mak, 66, who worked for a US company with several Navy contracts, was accused of trying to export intelligence about silent submarines in a plot that involved four members of his family.

Jurors at the US District Court in Santa Ana, 33 miles (53 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, began their deliberations on Monday.

Mak was convicted on two counts of attempting to send sensitive material to China, acting as a foreign agent without notifying the US government and making false statements to federal agents.

Mak faces up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced on September 10. Prosecutor Greg Staples said under sentencing guidelines the amount would probably be less but said Mak could expect a "substantial" jail term.

Defense lawyer Ron Kaye said prosecutors had won the case on "fear."

"We feel the government's case emphasized fear and we also believe there was a lot of misrepresentation," Kaye said.

Mak was arrested in October 2005 after agents swooped on two relatives at Los Angeles Airport as they prepared to board a flight to Hong Kong.

Prosecutors said the duo were caught with a disk containing sensitive encrypted data on US submarines hidden in a English-language CD course.

Mak's relatives, including his wife, his brother, sister-in-law and their son are still facing charges.

Although prosecutors accused Mak of spying for China during closing arguments on Monday, the engineer was not formally charged with espionage because the information was not officially deemed classified.

However prosecutors said the data, which related to silent submarine technology known as the Quiet Electric Drive (QED), was extremely sensitive and was marked NOFORN, meaning it should be barred from view of foreign nationals.

Prosecutors said the data required an appropriate export license, which Mak never sought.

Mak, a naturalized US citizen who was born in Guangzhou, China, denied the charges.

An official from a parent of the company that Mak worked for, Power Paragon, testified Mak did not need a government license to export the document, which Mak had written and presented at a 2004 engineering conference.

However, prosecutors rejected that claim, arguing that the Defense Department had never approved the data's release.

"If this document is in the public domain, why not fax it, email it or send it by mail?" assistant US attorney Craig Missakian told jurors in closing.

The 18-month investigation into Mak began in early 2004, when federal agents began audio and video surveillance of the engineer and his family.

Although not an espionage trial, prosecutors painted a shadowy world of intrigue, revealing Chinese intelligence's use of code names such as Red Flower, Winter Chrysanthemum and Autumn Orchid.

After raiding Mak's home, prosecutors said they also discovered a "wish-list" of US military technology, including information on missile defense and torpedo systems.

The trial comes amid increasing concern in the United States about the activities of Chinese intelligence agencies.

A senior US official said in March that Chinese agents were the most active in the world and were aggressively pursuing advanced technology.

"The technology bleed to China, among others, is a very serious problem," Joel Brenner, the new head of the Office of National Counterintelligence Executive, told The Washington Times.