Engineer Gets 29 Months in Prison for Illegal Exports
May 2008
Chi Mak, a former engineer for defense contractor Power Paragon, was sentenced to 293 months in federal prison and fined $50,000. Mak conspired with his wife, brother, sister-in-law and nephew to obtain naval technology and then export the material to the People’s Republic of China.
Co-conspirators from the PRC provided a task list for Chi Mak that requested specific defense information, including research regarding nuclear-powered submarines. The list contained instructions for Mak to take part in seminars and then compile information he obtained from the seminars onto computer disks. Nearly all of the information he obtained from the seminars was sensitive and subject to restrictions regarding its distribution, storage and handling.
Chi Mak and his wife would copy the information onto CD-ROM disks and then forward the disk to Mak’s brother, Tai Mak who would have his son take the data and encrypt it onto the CD-ROM disk. Tai Mak and his wife then took the disk and hid it in their luggage as they traveled to the PRC to deliver it, when they attempted to board the plane in Los Angeles they were arrested along with Chi Mak and his wife at their home and their son was apprehended and charged seven months later.
All conspirators have pleaded guilty and all face deportation back to the PRC.
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