Former Boeing engineer gets more than 15 years for espionage

From City News Service:

An ex-Boeing engineer convicted of passing secret space shuttle technology to China was sentenced today in Santa Ana to 15 years and eight months in prison.

Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 73, was convicted by U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney in
a non-jury trial in July of violating the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 and lying to the FBI.

The aerospace engineer -- who worked at Boeing's Huntington Beach plant - - was the first person tried under the Economic Espionage Act, which bars the distribution of trade secrets to benefit a foreign government.

Before sentencing, Chung denied he spied for China.

"Your honor, I'm not a spy. I'm an ordinary man," he said. "I was planning to write a book. Those documents were going to be used for my references."

Chung also told the judge: "I love this country. My children and grandchildren live here. I beg your pardon, I want to live with my family peacefully."

Chung's attorneys, Ken Miller and Thomas Bienert, argued that much of what Chung gave
the Chinese government was already in the public domain.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples said that while some information Chung passed on was publicly available, most of the material in question was not.

In his decision last year, Carney said Chung has been an agent of the Chinese government for 30 years.

"Under the direction and control of (the People's Republic of China), Mr. Chung misappropriated sensitive aerospace and military information belonging to his employer, the Boeing Co., to assist the PRC in developing its own programs."

Chung had a stroke about a year ago and was hospitalized within the past week for a
gastrointestinal problem, Bienert said after today's hearing. Carney recommended to the federal Bureau of Prisons that Chung be housed in a Southern California facility so he could see his family more regularly. The judge also ordered a medical exam of him.

Carney decided against imposing a fine on Chung because he felt it would end up hurting his family more than him. Attorneys this morning debated how much Boeing lost in the espionage case with estimates in the millions of dollars.