University of Tenessee Professor Convicted for Releasing Data to Chinese National
September 2008
J. Reece Roth, a 70 year old retired University of Tennessee professor faces up to 160 years in prison and more than $1.5 million in fines for 18 counts of conspiracy, fraud and violating the Arms Export Control Act. Roth, an expert in plasma research, agreed to serve as a subcontractor on a US Air Force project which was awarded to Knoxville technology firm Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc.(AGT) The project involved the development of advanced plasma actuators for use on the wings of Air Force drones, a defense munitions item.
Roth assigned two of his graduate students, Truman Bond an American and Xin Dai a Chinese foreign national, to work on the project with him. At first, Xin Dai was not allowed to view Truman Bond’s work to ensure that export laws were not broken. Soon after, Roth and Atmospheric Glow Technologies representative Daniel Max Sherman agreed that this was slowing the process and allowed the graduate students to work together and share all information.
It soon came the time for Xin Dai to graduate; Roth told Sherman at AGT that he planned to replace the Chinese foreign national with Iranian student Sirous Nourgostar. AGT declined to allow the new Iranian student to be added into the mix, Roth saw this as discrimination of Nourgostar’s Iranian nationality. Roth went to the University of Tennessee and complained about the discrimination, UT then in turn notified the Air Force that Roth had been violating the Export Control Act.
Roth continues to maintain, even after his conviction, that the research he allowed the foreign national graduate student to work on was itself not subject to any export control laws. He explained that, because the project did not actually produce a physical product, that the information is yet to be controlled under the EAR.
Patrick Rowan, Acting Assistant Attorney general for National Security, gave fair warning:
“Today’s guilty verdict should serve as a warning to anyone who knowingly discloses restricted US military data to foreign nationals. The illegal export of such sensitive data represents a very real threat to our national security, particularly when we know that foreign governments are actively seeking this information for their military development.”
J. Reece Roth will be sentenced on January 7, 2009.
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