The Joke of Homeland Security

U.S. engineer
convicted of selling
secrets to China

Posted 14h ago

HONOLULU (AP) — A federal jury convicted a former
B-2 stealth bomber engineer Monday of selling
military secrets and helping China design a stealth
cruise missile.

Noshir Gowadia was accused of pocketing at least
$110,000 from China, which he allegedly used to
pay the mortgage on a multimillion-dollar
oceanview home he built on Maui's north shore.

Gowadia, who has been in federal custody since
October 2005, faces life in prison when he is
sentenced in November.

The 67-year-old gave China a design for a cruise
missile component and then showed its
effectiveness when compared to United States' air-
to-air missiles, according to federal prosecutors.

"This verdict sends a very clear message that no,
you can't do that, and we can take care of our
business here in American courtrooms when that
happens," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson
said.

Gowadia's defense attorneys argued during the
nearly four-month trial that while it's true he gave
China the design for the cruise missile exhaust
nozzle, he based his work on unclassified, publicly
available information. Gowadia plans to appeal.

"Mr. Gowadia is obviously disappointed with the
verdict. He felt that he hadn't committed a crime,"
said his attorney Birney Bervar.

Gowadia was convicted on 14 of 17 counts,
including conspiracy, violating the arms export
control act, tax evasion and money laundering. He
was acquitted on charges of knowingly
communicating national defense information.

The decision came after six days of deliberations at
a federal court in Honolulu.

"Mr. Gowadia provided some of our country's most
sensitive weapons-related designs to the Chinese
government for money. Today, he is being held
accountable for his actions," said Assistant Attorney
General David Kris. "This prosecution should serve
as a warning to others who would compromise our
nation's military secrets for profit."

Gowadia helped design the propulsion system for
the B-2 bomber when he worked at Northrop Corp.,
now known as Northrop Grumman Corp. between
1968 and 1986.

Prosecutors argued that Gowadia helped China
design a cruise missile exhaust nozzle that would
give off less heat, allowing the cruise missile to
evade infrared radar detection and U.S. heat-seeking
missiles.

They said Gowadia traveled to China between 2003
and 2005 while designing the cruise missile and
used e-mail to arrange payment for his work.

Gowadia's defense attorney, David Klein, told jurors
it was true the engineer designed an exhaust nozzle
for China. But he said Gowadia's design was "basic
stuff" based on information that was already publicly
available.

Prosecutors also charged Gowadia with attempting
to sell classified stealth technology to the Swiss
government and businesses in Israel and Germany.

Advertisement During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence
that Gowadia used three foreign entities he
controlled, including a charity purportedly for the
benefit of children, to disguise the income he
received from foreign countries.

Born in India, Gowadia moved to the U.S. for
postgraduate work in the 1960s and became a U.S.
citizen about a decade later. He retired from
Northrop for health reasons in 1986, two years
before the B-2 made its public debut.

He moved to Maui in 1999 from the U.S. mainland
where he had been doing consulting work after
retiring from Northrop.

The case is one of a series of major prosecutions
targeting alleged Chinese spying on the U.S.

In March, Chinese-born engineer Dongfan "Greg"
Chung was sentenced to more than 15 years in
prison after he was convicted of six counts of
economic espionage and other federal charges.

Investigators learned about Chung while probing
Chi Mak, a defense contractor engineer convicted in
2007 of conspiracy to export U.S. defense
technology to China. Mak was sentenced to 24 years
in prison in 2008.