Engineer Sentenced to 32 Years in Prison for Export Control and Other Violations Involving Sale of Stealth Technology to China
An engineer who had once worked on the B-2 stealth bomber program was sentenced today by a federal judge in Hawaii to 32 years in prison after being convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act; communication, delivery and transmission of national defense information; conspiracy; money laundering; and filing a false tax return.
Noshir Gowadia, who was arrested in October 2005, was convicted by a jury in August 2010 on 14 of the 17 counts brought against him.
Among other things, Gowadia was charged with performing defense services for China by agreeing to design, and later designing, a low observable cruise missile exhaust system nozzle capable of rendering the missile less susceptible to detection and interception. Gowadia allegedly faxed a foreign official a proposal to develop infrared suppression technology for a foreign military aircraft and containing top secret level information concerning a U.S. defense system. He was also accused of submitting various proposals to persons in third countries to develop classified infrared suppression technology for foreign commercial aircraft. He allegedly used the funds received for selling the technical data to pay for a house in Maui, Hawaii.
Gowadia served as a visiting professor at Purdue University and worked as a consultant for a number of other universities.
Update: Justice Department's press release announcing Gowadia's sentencing can be found here.
Labels: Export Controls, ITAR
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