Chinese-born engineer guilty of economic espionage

金牛银熊

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A Chinese-born engineer was convicted Thursday of stealing trade secrets critical to the U.S. space program in the nation's first economic espionage trial.

A federal judge found former Boeing Co. engineer Dongfan "Greg" Chung guilty of six counts of economic espionage and other charges for hoarding 300,000 pages of sensitive documents in his home, including information about the U.S. space shuttle and a booster rocket.

"The trust Boeing placed in Mr. Chung to safeguard its proprietary and trade secret information obviously meant very little to Mr. Chung," U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote in his 31-page ruling. "He cast it aside to serve the PRC (People's Republic of China), which he proudly proclaimed as his `motherland.'"

Federal prosecutors accused the 73-year-old stress analyst of using his 30-year career at Boeing and Rockwell International to steal the documents. They said investigators found papers stacked throughout Chung's house that included sensitive information about a fueling system for a booster rocket — documents that Boeing employees were ordered to lock away at the close of work each day. They said Boeing invested $50 million in the technology over a five-year period.

The judge convicted Chung of six counts of economic espionage, one count of acting as a foreign agent, one count of conspiracy and one count of lying to federal agents. He was acquitted of obstruction of justice.

Chung was handcuffed and taken into federal custody following the ruling. He is set to be sentenced Nov. 9.

Federal prosecutor Ivy Wang said Chung could face a maximum sentence of more than 90 years in prison.

"I hope that one of the messages that goes out is if someone is going to steal proprietary information and steal that information for the benefit of another country, they are going to be charged in this country and face very serious punishment for doing so," Wang said after the ruling.

Chung opted for a non-jury trial that ended June 24. During the 10-day trial, defense attorneys said Chung was a "pack rat" who hoarded documents at his house but insisted he was not a spy.

They said Chung may have violated Boeing policy by bringing the papers home, but he didn't break any laws and the U.S. government couldn't prove he had given any of the information to China.

After the ruling, defense attorney Thomas Bienert said he planned to appeal.

"A big feature (of this case) is not about what China wanted Mr. Chung to do, but about what Mr. Chung was willing to do," Bienert said outside the courtroom. "There is no evidence that China used or benefited from anything in this case."

Chung had been free on $250,000 bail before the verdict. His attorneys asked the judge to let him remain with his family in Orange until sentencing, but the government said a man facing such a long sentence with close ties to China could easily flee to the Chinese consulate and never return.

The Economic Espionage Act was passed in 1996 to help the government crack down on the theft of information from private companies that contract with the government to develop U.S. space and military technologies.

The legislation became a priority in the mid-1990s when the United States realized China and other countries were targeting private businesses as part of their spy strategy.

Since then, six economic espionage cases have settled before trial. Another is set for trial in U.S. District Court in San Jose this year.

Chung worked for Rockwell International until it was bought by Boeing in 1996. He stayed with the Chicago-based company until he was laid off in 2002. After the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, Chung was brought back as a consultant. He was fired when the FBI began its investigation in 2006.

The government believes Chung began spying for the Chinese in the late 1970s, a few years after he became a naturalized U.S. citizen and was hired by Rockwell.

Prosecutors said they discovered Chung's activities while investigating another suspected Chinese spy, Chi Mak. Mak was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to export U.S. defense technology to China and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.

Mak was not charged under the Economic Espionage Act.

happylux

1# 金牛银熊

谁说说摘要？Too long.

aegiswu

白人对力拓间谍案的报复， 受伤的总是华人

dividend_growth

钱学森当年就是因为歧视而叛变的。

aegiswu

不应该理解成叛变， 是钱先脱离了自己的种群， 然后理性回归了， 呵呵

dividend_growth

不应该理解成叛变， 是钱先脱离了自己的种群， 然后理性回归了， 呵呵
aegiswu 发表于 2009-7-16 16:54

既然入籍了，就最好不要脚踏两条船，除非受到新国家不公平的对待。

aegiswu

既然入籍了，就最好不要脚踏两条船，除非受到新国家不公平的对待。
dividend_growth 发表于 2009-7-16 16:57

这点我确实相当赞同的， 美国人过去是日耳曼人，盎格鲁-萨克逊人和犹太人的美国， 以后也可以是华人的美国。
入籍的，拿绿卡的， 为我们中华民族的后代开疆辟土做出了巨大的贡献， 自己生活好，在美国扎下根就是最大的功业。

不要再跟政治搅和， 给白人公开歧视的借口。

Stein

In the company I was working in, there is a center database(globally), which needs approval from US government.  There is a online pre-check form, one of choice is nationality. For Chinese there is no chance. I have tried to apply, but I was informed three times from different level of administration (also copy to my leader).

But I should submit reports yearly to this system. and later on I am not allow to see!

What a stupid thing!

ON the other side, the higher we (Chinese) have studied, the higher possibility we will land on hi-tech R&D area, because they need our brain and expertise. (also better paid jobs). But the point is they will never trust us! They just want us to work like blind donkeys.

That is another dilemma for Chinese to work in top foreign companies (not only airspace/aircraft ones).

In fact, such sensitive information you can get it everywhere from internal conference/meeting, network share directories, etc. also because the American casual mentality. People can carry the laptop to anywhere with VPN access ...

All new employee has signed the secrecy agreement, why hire them if the company don't trust them?

I  am sure such issue mentioned in post#1 is more a political issue than an industry espionage.  esp. at this moment of the Rio Tino lawsuit.

mary666

ding

Stein

BEIJING (AFP)--Beijing said Monday that a Chinese-born former Boeing Co. (BA) engineer convicted by a U.S. court of spying for China had been set up, and insisted it had no links to the espionage case.
"The allegation that a so-called Chinese person stole trade secrets in the United States and gave them to China is purely a fabrication made up out of ulterior motives," the foreign ministry said in a short statement.
The ministry refused further comment on the case.
The former Boeing engineer, Dongfan "Greg" Chung, was convicted by a U.S. court last week of stealing technology and trade secrets for China for decades, including data on NASA's space shuttle program.
Chung, 73, a resident of Orange County, Ca. and a naturalized U.S. citizen, was found guilty of economic espionage and acquiring information using his "secret" classified clearance.
The former employee of Rockwell International's space and defense unit, which was taken over by Boeing in 1996, was convicted of multiple counts related to his decades-long espionage.
Chung, who was arrested in February 2008, remains in custody pending sentencing on November 9.