Legal News

Prosecutors recommending 20 years for 74-year-old convicted Chinese spy

By Richard Binder

Prosecutors will be seeking a 20-year prison sentence today for a Chinese-born engineer convicted of six federal counts of economic espionage.

Dongfan "Greg" Chung was found guilty in July for keeping 300,000 pages of sensitive papers in his home. The documents also included information about the fueling system for a booster rocket. The government accused Chung of using his status as a stress analyst with high-level clearance with Boeing and Rockwell International to steal the documents.

Chung's attorneys argued that the 74-year-old engineer broke no laws by taking the papers home, even though he had violated policy at Boeing.  But the government believes he began spying for the Chinese as early as the late '70s, and U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney agreed the evidence showed Chung had been passing information to Chinese officials.

Chung's defense attorneys have requested an evidentiary hearing regarding the prosecution's withholding a report of an FBI interview with a Chinese professor with whom Chung had corresponded.

Full story at the Fresno Bee.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 08, 2010 (boomark / email).