Nov 15, 7:26 PM (ET)
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Chinese-born engineer for a defense contractor and two of his family members already charged with stealing information about Navy warships were indicted on Tuesday on an additional charge of acting as agents of China.
Chi Mak, 65, an engineer with a California defense contractor, his brother Tai Wang Mak, 56, and Chi Mak's wife Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, 62, are already in custody, along with Tai's wife Fuk Heung Li.
All four were previously charged with conspiring to steal secrets about a classified U.S. Navy project and deliver them to China.
The federal court indictment, which was handed down by a grand jury on Tuesday, charges Chi Mak, Tai Mak and Chiu with an additional count of acting as an agent for a foreign government.
Li was not charged with the additional count in the superseding indictment.
According to an FBI affidavit, Chi, an engineer at California-based contractor Power Paragon, and his wife are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from China.
Tai and his wife are legal U.S. residents who emigrated from China in 2001.
Although none of the defendants was charged with spying, FBI Special Agent James Gaylord wrote in the affidavit he believed them to be foreign intelligence officers involved in stealing U.S. military secrets and delivering them to the Chinese government.
Chi, the lead engineer on a classified research project involving quiet propulsion systems -- known as Quiet Electric Drive -- for U.S. Navy warships, is accused of taking sensitive information about the project, copying it onto CDs and delivering them to his brother, Tai.
Tai, according to the affidavit, is accused of encrypting the information and making plans to take it to China with his wife. Chiu is accused of helping her husband copy the material.
Gaylord said in the affidavit that evidence against the four defendants included torn-up documents recovered from the trash at Chi's residence that included lists of sought military technologies as well as intercepted phone calls and e-mails.
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Chinese-born engineer for a defense contractor and two of his family members already charged with stealing information about Navy warships were indicted on Tuesday on an additional charge of acting as agents of China.
Chi Mak, 65, an engineer with a California defense contractor, his brother Tai Wang Mak, 56, and Chi Mak's wife Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, 62, are already in custody, along with Tai's wife Fuk Heung Li.
All four were previously charged with conspiring to steal secrets about a classified U.S. Navy project and deliver them to China.
The federal court indictment, which was handed down by a grand jury on Tuesday, charges Chi Mak, Tai Mak and Chiu with an additional count of acting as an agent for a foreign government.
Li was not charged with the additional count in the superseding indictment.
According to an FBI affidavit, Chi, an engineer at California-based contractor Power Paragon, and his wife are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from China.
Tai and his wife are legal U.S. residents who emigrated from China in 2001.
Although none of the defendants was charged with spying, FBI Special Agent James Gaylord wrote in the affidavit he believed them to be foreign intelligence officers involved in stealing U.S. military secrets and delivering them to the Chinese government.
Chi, the lead engineer on a classified research project involving quiet propulsion systems -- known as Quiet Electric Drive -- for U.S. Navy warships, is accused of taking sensitive information about the project, copying it onto CDs and delivering them to his brother, Tai.
Tai, according to the affidavit, is accused of encrypting the information and making plans to take it to China with his wife. Chiu is accused of helping her husband copy the material.
Gaylord said in the affidavit that evidence against the four defendants included torn-up documents recovered from the trash at Chi's residence that included lists of sought military technologies as well as intercepted phone calls and e-mails.
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