Chinese spy case goes to trial
Chinese spy case goes to trial
Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 10:47 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1664 -- 3/27/2007 >>>>>
Jury selection started today for the trial of Chi Mak, a Chinese engineer
who was indicted for conspiring to send secret submarine technology to
Communist China. There aren't many details about how Mak and his three
Chinese conspirators immigrated to the U.S. Chi Mak and Rebecca Chiu became
naturalized citizens in 1985 -- they may have come to the U.S. as refugees.
The other two, Tai Wang Mak and Fuk Heung Li, received employment-based
green cards in 2001 but I haven't been able to find out if they used H-1B
or student visas before they got green cards.
This website has some a lot of details about the case but unfortunately is
vague when it comes to immigration.
http://cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Chi_Mak.html
A recent report submitted to Congress by the federal government-sponsored
U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission had some alarming
observations about the extend of Chinese spy rings in the U.S.
"China has established an impressively large human intelligence
apparatus that extends far beyond traditional military and
national intelligence operations,"
Several similar cases are being prosecuted in federal court
elsewhere in California.
The FBI says similar things:
However, the FBI believes there is a major effort under way by
the Chinese government, involving more than 3,000 front companies,
to steal U.S. technology and military secrets, according to
published reports of interviews with Dave Szady, who until
February 2006 was the assistant director of the FBI's
counterintelligence division.
Since the government obviously knows that foreigners are entering the U.S.
for the purpose of spying, many questions are raised. Here are two that are
on the top of my list:
1) Considering that there is widespread spying by Chinese that use
employment based visas to live and work here, why is the DoD attempting to
loosen the rules so that more foreign nationals can work on defense related
research projects? (For more information on what is going on at the DoD, go
to the newsletter archive and search for titles with the text "DoD".)
2) Why did Representatives Flake and Gutierrez introduce the STRIVE Act
which increases the types of visas that were used by these Chinese spies?
Why did the Senate pass a comprehensive immigration bill last year that
does the same thing as the STRIVE Act?
3) Why doesn't the United States ever learn from its mistakes?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070327/ap_on_re_us/military_secrets_china
Trial begins in military secrets case By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press
Writer
Tue Mar 27, 1:11 PM ET
Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal trial of a former top engineer
at a major U.S. defense contractor accused of stealing military secrets for
the Chinese.
Federal prosecutors have portrayed defendant Chi Mak as a foreign agent who
used his position to steal some of the most advanced and closely guarded
naval technology in the world, including silent-running propulsion systems
that can make submarines virtually undetectable.
Defense attorneys argue that the 66-year-old is a devoted American who
would never harm his adopted country.
An initial group of about 75 jurors was brought to the courtroom Tuesday
and questioned as Mak looked on. Opening statements could begin later this
week for a trial U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney has said could run four
to six weeks.
Mak, a U.S. citizen since 1985, is charged with conspiracy to export U.S.
defense secrets to China, possession of property in aid of a foreign
government and failure to register as a foreign agent. He could get more
than 50 years in prison if convicted.
As a top engineer at Power Paragon, an Anaheim-based subsidiary of the
nation's sixth-largest defense company, L-3 Communications, Mak helped
develop some of the most advanced and closely guarded naval technology in
the world, including silent-running propulsion systems that can make
submarines virtually undetectable.
But prosecutors say Mak was also working for his native China from 1983
until his arrest two years ago, stealing hundreds of documents about a
number of defense systems.
Mak allegedly took documents from Power Paragon, copied them to computer
disks and encrypted them with the help of his brother, Tai Mak, and nephew,
Billy Mak, before trying to pass them to a Chinese contact.
Tai Mak and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, were arrested in October 2005 at Los
Angeles International Airport as they prepared to travel to Hong Kong and
China.
Hidden in their luggage were encrypted disks containing copies of documents
on a submarine propulsion system, according to court papers.
Chi Mak was arrested several days later.
According to the FBI, Chi Mak told investigators his brother was giving the
information to a researcher at a Chinese university center that conducts
operations research for and receives funding from the People's Liberation
Army.
During a search of Chi Mak's home, investigators found restricted documents
on the DDX Destroyer, an advanced technology warship, according to court
papers.
They also found lists in Chinese asking Chi Mak to get documents about
submarine torpedo technology, electromagnetic artillery systems, weapon
standardization, early warning technology used to detect incoming missiles,
and defenses used against nuclear attack, the court papers said.
Chi Mak's lawyers have said the government has grossly exaggerated the
evidence against their client, and he would never do anything to harm his
adopted country.
"Every person you turn to says he's the most generous, committed engineer
in the company," Mak attorney Ronald Kaye said recently. "My client is
committed to discussing and learning about technology -- that's all."
Tai Mak, Li, Billy Mak and Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, the wife of Chi Mak, have
all pleaded not guilty and await trial.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_5516539
FBI says man spied on U.S. for Chinese
Crime: Downey man and his brother accused of conspiracy to pass naval
technology to China.
By Tomio Geron, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
Article Launched:03/24/2007 10:36:27 PM PDT
DOWNEY - It was a story right out of a spy novel.
Tai Wang Mak, 57, and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, 48, were arrested by federal
agents at LAX as they were about to board a Cathay Pacific Airlines flight
for Hong Kong at 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 28, 2005.
In the Alhambra couple's suitcase, federal agents who had been secretly
monitoring the Maks for at least 17 months found three CD-ROMs wrapped in
women's clothing.
The disks allegedly contained encrypted information about the U.S. Navy,
including submarine propulsion technology.
Mak's older brother, Chi Mak, 66, of Downey, stole the materials from his
job and gave them to Tai to pass to Chinese government agents, prosecutors
allege.
Chi Mak, an electrical engineer at Navy contractor Power Paragon in
Anaheim, and his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, 62, were also arrested that
night at their home.
The FBI surveillance was a spy novelist's dream, involving secret wiretaps,
garbage can searches, torn-up documents pieced together, secret code words
in Chinese, and audio- and videotaping of the suspects in their homes, cars
and workplaces.
The 15-count indictment against the Maks, together with thousands of pages
of court filings, paint a picture of a conspiracy extending from China to
Hong Kong to Southern California.
The Chinese government wanted the information on U.S. warships and
submarines to develop its own "blue water" or deep sea navy and "gain a
tactical advantage over U.S. Naval and allied forces," the indictment
alleges.
Chi Mak, who is being held without bail, faces six charges - including
conspiracy to export defense articles, attempted unlawful export of defense
articles, and acting as a foreign government agent without notifying
federal officials - and at least 50 years in prison if convicted on all
counts.
Through his attorney, Ronald Kaye, Chi Mak maintains his innocence and says
the information he had was not classified secret.
"We're going to present substantial evidence at trial that demonstrates the
charges are not based on fact," Kaye said. "And we anticipate Mr. Mak will
return to his law-abiding productive life once this nightmare is over."
Jury selection for Chi Mak's trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in U.S.
District Court in Santa Ana. The other four suspects, including Tai Mak's
son, are scheduled for trial in May.
The Mak family members are just a few of the thousands of individuals from
China whom the FBI believes are stealing business and military technology
from the United States, according to a former FBI official and published
reports.
"China has established an impressively large human intelligence apparatus
that extends far beyond traditional military and national intelligence
operations," according to a recent report submitted to Congress by the
federal government-sponsored U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission.
Several similar cases are being prosecuted in federal court elsewhere in
California.
Special Agent James Gaylord, who has worked at the FBI's Santa Ana office
for 20 years, the last 15 in counterintelligence, is the agency's point man
on the case.
Gaylord, in several detailed affidavits, spelled out what he said was Chi
Mak's access to information at Power Paragon, a subsidiary of L-3
Communications, the sixth largest defense company in the United States.
Mak was the lead engineer at Power Paragon for research on the Quiet
Electric Drive (QED), an "extremely sensitive project" for U.S. Navy
submarines, Gaylord said.
The QED project, developed for U.S. Navy Virginia-class submarines and
DD(X) surface destroyers, cancels noise from the drive and allows
submarines to operate quietly, Mak said in an interview with the FBI.
Mak allegedly took information about QED and other projects to his home,
copied it onto CDs and gave them to his brother Tai, Gaylord said.
Tai Mak encrypted the data onto blank Office Depot CD-RW disks with help
from his wife and son, then made plans to travel with his wife to
Guangzhou, China, to pass the CDs to an agent of the Chinese government,
Gaylord said.
Copies of the files that were on the CDs were found on Tai Mak's laptop at
home, Gaylord said.
The FBI also found on Tai Mak's laptop about 60 deleted files, originally
from Power Paragon, that had been encrypted in February 2004, which were
related to a sensitive Navy DD(X) research project conducted by Northrop
Grumman Ship Systems, Inc, according to Gaylord.
Audio- and videotaping
The FBI surveillance was conducted through a federal warrant under the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Known as FISA, the secret
authorization is given for national security investigations by a judge in
an electronically secure courtroom in Washington, D.C.
Unlike standard warrants, the applications and documents for FISA warrants,
as well as much of the surveillance produced, is often not accessible by
defense attorneys or the public.
The FISA surveillance of the Maks, which began as early as June 2004,
gathered more than 20,000 telephone conversations, 4,401 e-mails, 2,250
hours of audio surveillance, 576 hours of video inside Chi Mak's house, and
252 hours of audio in two of Mak's vehicles, according to a legal filing.
Nine days before the Hong Kong flight, Tai was recorded making a phone call
to an agent in China. Tai identified himself as being with "Red Flower of
North America," Gaylord said.
The "Red Flower" indicated Tai's position as a spy for China, Gaylord said.
"(H)istorically, (China's) intelligence services utilize categories of code
words to designate intelligence bureaus, such as 'White Chrysanthemum' and
'Autumn Orchid,"' Gaylord said in an affidavit.
Tai allegedly told the Chinese agent, Pei-liang Pu, that on their flight
leaving Los Angeles Oct. 28 he and his wife were bringing an "assistant,"
which is code for stolen data, Gaylord said.
Pu, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Asia Pacific Studies at
Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China, is an agent for the Chinese
government, prosecutors allege.
Pu told Tai that he would pick him up from the Guangzhou airport, according
to Gaylord.
The next day, according to the FBI, Tai Mak told his wife that Chi was
"definitely nervous about 'it."' Tai later told his wife that "... he has
to give me a disk, but I still have to take his disk and then have it
encrypted ..."
In subsequent days, the FBI recorded a number of other conversations the
agency says show the couple preparing to leave for China and encrypting the
disks, a process that scrambles information with a computer program to make
it difficult for authorities to view.
The military information was hidden beneath music files on the CDs,
prosecutors allege.
Tai Mak's son, Billy Yui Mak, 26, a UCLA senior, was also later arrested on
charges of assisting his father with the encryption.
Chi Mak had "tasking lists" written in Chinese of what types of technical
information he was supposed to obtain for China, prosecutors allege. Two
such alleged lists were found torn up on Feb. 7, 2005, in Mak's trash
behind his Downey home.
One computer-printed list contained instructions to attend more seminars
and join organizations on sensitive topics, according to a translation in a
court filing. It also listed military technologies Chi Mak was allegedly
charged with obtaining, including space-based electromagnetic intercept
systems, submarine torpedoes and aircraft carrier electronic systems.
The other document was a hand-written list of nine technologies, including
water jet propulsion, ship submarine propulsion, defense against nuclear
attack, and DD(X) or next-generation destroyers.
According to a Gaylord affidavit, documents corresponding to some items on
the lists were found in Chi Mak's home.
The FBI also said Chi Mak planned to retire to China and owned property
there.
Disputed jail interviews
A major dispute at trial is expected over two interviews of Chi Mak on Oct.
28 and 30, 2005, in a Santa Ana jail.
In legal filings, Chi's attorney disputed the accuracy of the prosecutors'
view of the interviews and questioned why the second interview was not
videotaped, as interviews with the other four suspects were.
The second interview is expected to be a key point of dispute at trial,
because as written in the FBI's report, Mak's alleged statement is a
virtual confession to the charges.
In the first interview, Special Agent Gunnar Newquist of the Naval Criminal
Intelligence Service and the FBI's Gaylord grilled Mak about why he gave
Tai Mak the QED information.
Initially, Chi Mak told the agents he gave the QED information to his
brother for his brother to get him "some books" in Hong Kong.
"Yeah I don't really fo--focus on QED. I just want the general power
electronics, including some paper, something like that," Mak says in an FBI
transcript.
Later, Mak acknowledged that he took documents that were not supposed to be
handled by foreign nationals from his work to his home.
"Did you not take documents that are export controlled and give them to
your brother?" Newquist asked.
"For shopping, yes," Mak replied.
However, in the second interview, according to the FBI, Mak acknowledged he
had admitted on Oct. 23 giving the CDs with U.S. Navy technical information
to Tai, who would give the CDs to a Mr. Pu in China.
Chi also said, according to an FBI report of the untaped interview, that as
far back as 1983 he had been hand-delivering U.S. Navy and company
documents to China through Tai. When Tai lived in Hong Kong, Chi would
personally deliver the material to Tai in Hong Kong. When Tai moved to Los
Angeles, Tai would deliver the information to China, the agents reported.
Chi Mak also said, according to the FBI report, that "his desire to share
technical information was a kind of 'hobby."'
In the same interview, Chi could not explain why he kept a Hong Kong
?
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