Verdict expected in Calif. economic espionage case

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Chinese-born engineer accused of passing critical trade secrets on the U.S. space program to China in the nation's first economic espionage trial will soon learn his fate.

A verdict in the trial of Dongfan "Greg" Chung was expected to be announced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney. Chung has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, economic espionage, lying to federal agents, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent.

Federal prosecutors accused the 73-year old man engineer of using his 30-year career at Boeing Co. and Rockwell International to steal 300,000 pages of sensitive documents, including papers on the U.S. space shuttle and a booster rocket.

Prosecutors said investigators found papers stacked throughout Chung's house that included sensitive information about a fueling system for a booster rocket — documents that Boeing employees were ordered to lock away at the close of work each day. They said Boeing invested $50 million in the technology over a five-year period.

Chung opted for a non-jury trial that ended nearly three weeks ago. During the trial, defense attorneys said Chung was a "pack rat" who hoarded documents at his house but insisted he was not a spy.

They also said Chung may have violated Boeing policy by bringing the papers home but didn't break any laws and the U.S. government couldn't prove he had given any of the information to China.

The Economic Espionage Act was passed in 1996 to help the government crack down on the theft of information from private companies that contract with the government to develop U.S. space and military technologies.

The legislation became a priority in the mid-1990s when the United States realized China and other countries were targeting private businesses as part of their spy strategy.

Since then, six economic espionage cases have settled before trial. Another is set for trial in U.S. District Court in San Jose this year.

Chung worked for Rockwell International until it was bought by Boeing in 1996. He stayed with Boeing until he was laid off in 2002. After the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, Chung was brought back as a consultant. He was fired when the FBI began its investigation in 2006.

The government believes Chung began spying for the Chinese in the late 1970s, a few years after he became a naturalized U.S. citizen and was hired by Rockwell.

Prosecutors said they discovered Chung's activities while investigating another suspected Chinese spy, Chi Mak. Mak was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to export U.S. defense technology to China and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.

Mak was not charged under the Economic Espionage Act.

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