Engineer jailed for selling US stealth bomber technology to China
By Peter Foster 7:00AM GMT 25 Jan 2011
A former B-2 stealth bomber engineer has been jailed for 32 years by a US court for selling military secrets to China.
Noshir Gowadia, 66, made profits of at least USD$110,000 (£68,000) by selling classified engine technology that China needed for its design of a stealth cruise missile that could evade infra-red detection, the court heard.
"He broke his oath of loyalty to this country," said Judge Susan Oki Mollway passing sentence after a hearing in Honolulu, Hawaii, "He was found guilty of marketing valuable technology to foreign countries for personal gain." Gowadia, an engineer with the Northrop Grumman Corporation between 1968-88 who worked on the B-2 design, made repeated trips to China between 2003 and 2005 providing "defence services" to China's cruise missile programme as a freelance consultant.
The prosecution had called on the judge to impose a life sentence on Gowadia who used the proceeds of the sales to fund a luxury lifestyle on Hawaii where he lived in a multi-million dollar home overlooking the ocean on Maui.
Defence lawyers for Gowadia, an Indian-born engineer who worked on the engine design for the B-2 bomber, had argued that he had sold only unclassified technology.
However after a 40-day trial, he was convicted on 14 charges including communicating national defence information to aid a foreign nation, violating the arms export control act and several counts of money-laundering and tax fraud.
.
By Peter Foster 7:00AM GMT 25 Jan 2011
A former B-2 stealth bomber engineer has been jailed for 32 years by a US court for selling military secrets to China.
Noshir Gowadia, 66, made profits of at least USD$110,000 (£68,000) by selling classified engine technology that China needed for its design of a stealth cruise missile that could evade infra-red detection, the court heard.
"He broke his oath of loyalty to this country," said Judge Susan Oki Mollway passing sentence after a hearing in Honolulu, Hawaii, "He was found guilty of marketing valuable technology to foreign countries for personal gain." Gowadia, an engineer with the Northrop Grumman Corporation between 1968-88 who worked on the B-2 design, made repeated trips to China between 2003 and 2005 providing "defence services" to China's cruise missile programme as a freelance consultant.
The prosecution had called on the judge to impose a life sentence on Gowadia who used the proceeds of the sales to fund a luxury lifestyle on Hawaii where he lived in a multi-million dollar home overlooking the ocean on Maui.
Defence lawyers for Gowadia, an Indian-born engineer who worked on the engine design for the B-2 bomber, had argued that he had sold only unclassified technology.
However after a 40-day trial, he was convicted on 14 charges including communicating national defence information to aid a foreign nation, violating the arms export control act and several counts of money-laundering and tax fraud.
.
