World
Feb 9, 2010
Spy gets 15 years
<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> LOS ANGELES - AN EX-BOEING Co engineer, found guilty last year of passing space shuttle secrets to China in America's first conviction under a 1996 espionage law, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years in prison. Dongfan 'Greg' Chung, a naturalised US citizen, was convicted in July of economic espionage and acting as an agent for the People's Republic of China.
In sentencing Chung to 188 months behind bars, US District Judge Cormac Carney, who presided over the 10-day trial in Santa Ana, California, said he wanted to send a signal to China to 'stop sending your spies here,' according to prosecutors. Chung, 73, the first person convicted at trial under the Economic Espionage Act, told the judge he was innocent.
'Your honour, I'm not a spy, I'm an ordinary man,' he said. 'I was planning to write a book. Those documents were going to be used for my references.' 'I love this country, my children and grandchildren live here,' said Chung, who was born in China and lived in Taiwan before moving to the United States in 1962. 'I beg your pardon, I want to live with my family peacefully.'
In convicting him in July, the judge found that Chung had acted as an agent of the Chinese government for over 30 years. Chung was arrested on Sept 11, 2006, after federal agents searching his home found more than 300,000 pages of sensitive documents relating to the space shuttle, Delta IV rocket, F-15 fighter, B-52 bomber, CH-46/47 Chinook helicopter and other aerospace and military technologies. They also discovered letters, lists and journals detailing Chung's communications with officials in China. -- REUTERS
Feb 9, 2010
Spy gets 15 years
<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> LOS ANGELES - AN EX-BOEING Co engineer, found guilty last year of passing space shuttle secrets to China in America's first conviction under a 1996 espionage law, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years in prison. Dongfan 'Greg' Chung, a naturalised US citizen, was convicted in July of economic espionage and acting as an agent for the People's Republic of China.
In sentencing Chung to 188 months behind bars, US District Judge Cormac Carney, who presided over the 10-day trial in Santa Ana, California, said he wanted to send a signal to China to 'stop sending your spies here,' according to prosecutors. Chung, 73, the first person convicted at trial under the Economic Espionage Act, told the judge he was innocent.
'Your honour, I'm not a spy, I'm an ordinary man,' he said. 'I was planning to write a book. Those documents were going to be used for my references.' 'I love this country, my children and grandchildren live here,' said Chung, who was born in China and lived in Taiwan before moving to the United States in 1962. 'I beg your pardon, I want to live with my family peacefully.'
In convicting him in July, the judge found that Chung had acted as an agent of the Chinese government for over 30 years. Chung was arrested on Sept 11, 2006, after federal agents searching his home found more than 300,000 pages of sensitive documents relating to the space shuttle, Delta IV rocket, F-15 fighter, B-52 bomber, CH-46/47 Chinook helicopter and other aerospace and military technologies. They also discovered letters, lists and journals detailing Chung's communications with officials in China. -- REUTERS
