WASHINGTON, July 24: A 28-year-old Chinese national in the US has pleaded guilty to charges of trying to smuggle sensitive military technology obtained from undercover American agents to China.
Bo Cai, an employee of a Chinese technology firm, was accused along with another Chinese national Wentong Cai, 29, of trying to illegally export military sensors out of the US.
Wentong, who is in the US on a student Visa, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Bo faces up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced at a later date.
In his plea agreement, Bo admitted that from March 2012 to December 2013 he conspired to export sensors from the US to China without first obtaining the required export license.
According to the plea agreement, Bo attempted to smuggle sensors out of the US to China for one of his customers in March 2012 despite knowledge that the sensors could not be exported without approval from the US Department of State.
Bo enlisted Wentong to acquire the sensors under the ruse that he planned to use the sensors at Iowa State University where he was a graduate microbiology student, federal prosecutors said.
Court filings indicate that the investigation of this case began in October 2013, when an undercover agent responded to Wentong Cai’s overtures.
After negotiations on phone and via email, Bo and Wentong travelled to New Mexico in December 2013, where they obtained a sensor from undercover agents and developed a plan for smuggling the sensor out of the US to China.
On December 11, 2013, Bo was arrested at an airport in Los Angeles, as he was preparing to board a flight to China after the sensor was discovered concealed in a computer speaker in his luggage. (PTI)
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