Posted on 05/10/2007 1:43:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SANTA ANA, Calif. - Jurors convicted a Chinese-born engineer Thursday of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, including data on an electronic propulsion system that could make submarines virtually undetectable.
Chi Mak also was found guilty of being an unregistered foreign agent. Prosecutors had dropped a charge of actually exporting defense articles.
When the verdict was read, Mak at first showed no emotion but then appeared to hold back tears as defense attorney Marilyn Bednarsky teared up and rubbed his back. Defense attorney Ron Kaye's face was flush.
Mak faces up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 10.
Mak, 66, acknowledged during the trial that he copied classified documents from his employer, a defense contractor, and kept copies in his office. He maintained he didn't realize at the time that making the copies was illegal.
Kaye said the defense team still believes Mak is innocent.
"We believe the facts of the case have been manipulated, and we believe Mr. Mak didn't necessarily get a fair trial," Kaye said.
In many instances, the government was allowed to present classified information to U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in his chambers, and the defense team did not receive some classified information about a request by the FBI to bug Chi Mak's house, Kaye said.
"We were confident from the start and we're very happy with the verdict," Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples said.
Authorities believe Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen, took thousands of pages of documents from his employer, Power Paragon of Anaheim, and gave them to his brother, who prosecutors say passed them along to Chinese authorities for years.
Mak was arrested in 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong. Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in their luggage containing sensitive military documents.
Staples said the government may use the verdict to try to negotiate plea bargains with members of his family who are awaiting trial this month. Mak's wife, brother and other relatives have pleaded not guilty.
The six-week trial featured testimony from a parade of FBI agents, U.S. Navy officials and encryption and espionage experts.
Key to the case was the government's allegation that Mak confessed to the conspiracy — and even identified his Chinese government handler and specific restricted documents — during an untaped jailhouse interview two days after his arrest.
Mak testified he never confessed during that interview, but admitted that he lied repeatedly in an earlier taped interview about the number of times he had visited China and when he told authorities he didn't have friends or relatives there. He said he felt intimidated during the interrogation.
"This is why I lied," he said. "They were pushing me that night."
Mak's attorneys had focused on the propulsion system documents found in his brother's luggage at Los Angeles International Airport.
Mak said he believed he was doing nothing wrong by giving the documents to his brother to take out of the country because they were papers that had been presented previously at international conferences.
Now you ship that son of a bitch to a black Ops prison cell and waterboard him until he gives up absolutely every phone number, every contact, every piece of data he’s exported and stolen. Bleed this old bastard until he is absolutely dry and then have him suffer a mysterious “accident”.
Richly deserved. He should be executed. But that won’t happen. As soon as he has served his time in prison, he should be stripped of his citizenship and sent back to his Chinese masters, along with his entire scheming, traitorous family. But why a plea bargain for his relatives, who were CAUGHT RED HANDED getting on a plane to China? Oh, and where do we go to get our stolen technology back from the red Chinese? When are we going to stop allowing these “naturalized citizens” to work on secret military technology projects?
Ditto.
You know he is going to be replaced by someone just like him. Dems just don’t get it. It won’t stop unless they take an active part which they won’t because it could effect there chances of being elected into office.
That's BS. A prerequisite to being allowed access to this information is being told what you can and cannot do with it. From a broad view what he did could be perfectly legit: he used an approved copier, he ensured the copies were properly marked, he properly couriered the documents to his office, his office was approved to store classified information, etc.. Of course I doubt any of those circumstances apply to his case.
Now if that's true, doesn't sound like 007 material to me. If untrue then he should be toast.
The encrypted CDs didn’t help his argument methinks.
He should have stuffed everything in his pants a la Sandy Burglar, and he’d get off scot free.
I hope it provokes an exodus of "naturalized" Chinese who are here to "help us out."
He’ll be 101 by then if he serves the full sentence.
Either way it shows clearly that his allegiance is not to the United States.
His entire family should be black listed.
Public stoning is too good for ANY of these bastards. They should all be executed, and then the bodies sent back to China. Anyone who spies against America isn’t worthy of being buried on US soil.
This type of espionage, and the half-assed manner in which we handle our security, makes my blood boil. Maybe our government will wake the hell up when we have a couple of aircraft carriers on the bottom of the South China Sea as a result of American inactivity in securing our military secrets.
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