Posted on 11/18/2005 9:14:43 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A federal judge set bail at $300,000 Friday for a Chinese-American engineer accused of stealing U.S. military secrets, but ordered his younger brother held until another hearing later this month.
Chi Mak, his wife and brother were indicted Tuesday on a charge of acting as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the U.S. attorney general. If convicted, each could face up to 10 years in prison.
According to the original affidavit, Mak, 65, stole computer disks from defense contractor Power Paragon, where he was lead engineer on a sensitive research project involving propulsion systems for Navy warships.
He and his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, allegedly copied the information to CDs and delivered them to his younger brother, Tai Wang Mak, who was scheduled to fly to China when he was arrested with his wife at Los Angeles International Airport last month.
Chiu was released earlier on $300,000 bail. The case against Tai Wang Mak's wife was dropped, though she was named Tuesday in a separate complaint involving a company that set up sham marriages for immigrants.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Marc Goldman on Friday set bail for Chi Mak and ordered home detention with a global positioning system to monitor his movements after he posts bail, which his attorney expects Monday.
Goldman also questioned Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Staples about the discrepancy between the allegations in the original affidavit and the indictment returned by the grand jury.
Federal prosecutors had originally accused the brothers and Chiu of stealing government property, aiding and abetting, transportation of stolen goods and conspiracy, much more serious charges.
"From what I'm getting now ... while the documents have security implications, they're not the classified documents you said," Goldman said.
Authorities believe Chi Mak had been feeding information to China since 1983, including highly sensitive information about radar power distribution systems on Aegis warships. In new documents released Friday, they said they found a detailed map of the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, used for testing prototype nuclear reactors, at Chi Mak's house.
This is beyond my ability to comment.
Well, I can comment.
It sounds to me like someone wants the pair of them to jump bail & go to China.
The fix is in.
That is the only charge the grand jury could come up with ?
The charges against scooter libby are worse than that.
The grand jury is saying that if they had notified the US attorney general, what they were doing was totally legal.
The prosecutors are incompetent boobs. They have either tried to unjustly railroad innocent people or they have totally botched a case involving spies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.