Oh, there's a winner alright.
Posted on 06/06/2007 4:33:03 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The last defendant in an extended family charged with conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China reached a plea deal that brought the case to an abrupt end, authorities said Wednesday.
Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, 63, reached the deal with federal prosecutors late Tuesday on the eve of her trial on charges of conspiracy to export defense articles, failure to register as a foreign agent and making false statements to the FBI.
Chiu instead pleaded guilty to one count of acting as a foreign agent without registering with the U.S. government and will serve three years in prison, said her attorney, Stanley Greenberg. The Chinese-born Chiu will leave the United States voluntarily after her release and renounce her U.S. citizenship, he said.
Chiu's husband, Chi Mak, an engineer for the Anaheim-based naval defense contractor Power Paragon, was convicted last month of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI. He faces 45 years in prison when sentenced on Sept. 10.
In the past week, three other family members - Mak's brother, sister-in-law and nephew - also reached plea deals with prosecutors.
"The evidence against her was pretty much the same as the evidence against him," Greenberg said, referring to his client's husband. "Essentially, she made a calculated decision to ... allow her to get along with the rest of her life, that will allow her to get out of prison before she's 80."
The jury in Chiu's case had already been sworn in and was dismissed early Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said the government "couldn't have been more successful" in its prosecution of the case, but added, "I don't think there are any real winners here."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples called the final plea deal "historic" and said that no one has ever admitted to being an agent of a foreign government before.
"We saw something of a minor, but something of an historic, nature," Staples told the judge.
Prosecutors alleged that Mak, who worked on some the Navy's most sensitive technology projects in his job as lead engineer, took thousands of documents from his employer and conspired to pass them to Chinese government officials with the help of his extended family.
The government alleged in court papers that Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had been passing information to the Chinese since 1983 and had a handler in China named "Mr. Pu."
Mak was arrested in late 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China.
Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in their luggage that contained documents on a submarine propulsion system, a solid-state power switch for ships and a Power Point presentation on the future of power electronics.
Mak's trial, which lasted more than a month, featured a string of witnesses including FBI agents, espionage experts and naval investigators. Jurors were allowed to view classified documents during the trial and Mak's attorneys received special clearance to access some evidence in the case.
Mak's brother, Tai Mak, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to violate export control laws and faces 10 years in prison. His wife, Fuk Li, pleaded guilty the same day to aiding and abetting the violation of export control laws and faces three years of probation.
The couple's son, Yui "Billy" Mak, pleaded guilty last week to aiding and abetting the violation of export control laws and is expected to be sentenced to time already served.
The three are not U.S. citizens and will be deported after completing their sentences, prosecutors said.
‘toon must have called in a favor from “his judge”!
LLS
Oh, there's a winner alright.
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