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A.Rahman
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Bail Denied for Couple Allegedly Involved in Chinese Espionage Plot
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LOS ANGELES
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LOS ANGELES
A U.S. judge has ordered a Hong Kong couple held without bail over an alleged plot to steal secret U.S. Navy propulsion technology and smuggle it to China, officials told Agence France-Presse Nov. 8.
Former television director Mak Tai-wing and his wife, Li Fuk-heung, were ordered remanded in custody without bond when they appeared in court in Los Angeles on Nov. 7, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney.
The pair were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 28 as they boarded a Cathay Pacific Airways flight to Hong Kong and an encrypted computer disc was found in their baggage, prosecutors told the court.
U.S. officials were in the process of decrypting the discs Nov. 8, sources told Agence France-Presse.
Makââ¬â¢s brother Mak Chi, who was an engineer with a U.S. military contractor and had access to highly sensitive data, as well as his wife, Rebecca Chiu Lai-wah, were arrested at their home near Los Angeles on the same evening, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Agence France-Presse.
Chi, a Chinese-born naturalized U.S. citizen who worked for a defense contractor called Power Paragon, is accused of copying secret data on U.S. Navy technology being developed to power warships called Quiet Electronic Drive (QED) and passing it onto his brother Tai.
ââ¬ÅQED is an extremely sensitive project,ââ¬Â Federal Bureau of Investigation agent James Gaylord said in an affidavit contained in a criminal complaint against the four ethnic Chinese suspects.
ââ¬ÅThe technology developed by the QED program is considered by the Navy to be significant military equipment and therefore killed for export to countries specifically denied by the U.S. State Department, including the PRC (China),ââ¬Â wrote Gaylord, who specialized in counter-intelligence involving China.
The FBI also alleges Chi was planning to smuggle other secrets to China and that they found in his home shredded documents printed in Chinese, one of which instructed Chi to gain information on a number of military technologies, including space-based military systems.
If convicted, each of the four could face prison terms of up to 10 years plus fines.
Chi was ordered held without bail on Oct. 31 and is due to appear in court again on Nov. 10. Bail for his wife, Rebecca, also a naturalized U.S. citizen, was set at $300,000 when she appeared in court on Nov. 4.
A preliminary hearing in the case in scheduled for Nov. 15, prosecutors said.
According to the FBI affidavit, Mak, a permanent U.S. resident, is the broadcast and engineering director for Phoenix North American Chinese Channel, which broadcasts programs in the United States. Phoenix television is headquartered in Hong Kong.
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