Engineer gets 15 1/2 years for giving secrets to Chinese

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A former Boeing
engineer was sentenced Monday to 15 1/2 years in prison in an economic
espionage case in which aerospace trade secrets — including data about
the space shuttle program and the Delta IV rocket — was given to the People’s Republic of China.

Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 74, of Orange, Calif., asked U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney for leniency during the sentencing hearing.

“Your honor, I’m not a spy. I’m only an ordinary
man,” said a handcuffed Chung, as he stood at the courtroom’s podium.
“Your honor, I beg your pardon to let me live with my family
peacefully.”

Carney didn’t grant Chung his wish.

He said Chung’s crimes were a matter of national
security, and that the former engineer committed “clear breach of the
sacred trust that Boeing and this country placed on him.”

“I do not know the full extent of how our national security was comprised,” the judge said. “I don’t think I ever will.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples agreed with the judge’s opinion of the seriousness of the crime: “Like
terrorism or treason, this is a crime against the state,” he said.

Chung’s attorneys, Thomas Bienert Jr. and Ken Miller, contended that Chung only gave public data to China,
and that the case was not a national security issue. Bienert had asked
the judge to sentence Chung to five years in prison — which would give
him the chance of being able to see his family at the end of his life.

Chung’s wife and son, who sat in the courtroom gallery, declined to comment.

The bench trial before Carney ended last July. Chung
was convicted of nine counts, including six counts of economic
espionage and acting as an agent for the Chinese government.

Carney ruled Chung has been a secret agent for more
than 30 years, and said Chung misappropriated sensitive aerospace and
military information belonging to his employer.

Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen, began working at Rockwell in Downey in 1973. Rockwell was acquired by Boeing, and in 1999, Chung moved to Boeing’s plant in Huntington Beach, according to prosecutors. He worked there full-time until 2002, and then until 2006 on a contractual basis.

He was arrested in February 2008. Authorities found more than 250,000 documents at Chung’s home — information from Rockwell, Boeing and other aerospace companies, including correspondence with Chinese officials. One May 1987
letter, written by a senior Chinese aviation official, asked Chung to
get information on airplanes and the space shuttle, prosecutors said.

Chung’s case stemmed from the probe of another former Orange County engineer, Chi Mak, who was convicted three years ago on charges of exporting sensitive defense technology to China. Mak was sentenced to 24 1/2 years in prison.

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(c) 2010, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).

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