10-year term for trying to bring military secrets to China
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The younger brother of an imprisoned Chinese-American engineer was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Monday in his family's conspiracy to export military technology to China.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney sentenced Tai Mak to the maximum penalty allowed nearly a month after sentencing his older brother, 67-year-old Chi Mak, to 24 1/2 years in prison.
Tai Mak pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate export control laws. His attorney, John Early, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Chi Mak, an engineer for the Anaheim-based defense contractor Power Paragon, was convicted by a jury last year of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI.
Tai Mak was arrested in late 2005 after FBI agents stopped him and his wife as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China. Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in the couple's luggage that contained documents on a submarine propulsion system, a solid-state power switch for ships and a PowerPoint presentation on the future of power electronics.
Federal prosecutors said Chi Mak stole the sensitive information on U.S. naval technologies from his employer and was using his brother and sister-in-law to get the information to his Chinese handlers.
Three other family members — Chi Mak's wife, Tai Mak's wife and Tai Mak's son — struck plea deals in the case last year.
