Indian company chief admits smuggling weapons technology

[ejaz007]

Indian company chief admits smuggling weapons technology ​

Friday, March 14, 2008

WASHINGTON: The Indian head of an international electronics firm pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of shipping restricted weapons technology to the Indian government, the US Justice Department said.

Parthasarathy Sudarshan, president of Cirrus Electronics with offices in the United States, Singapore and India, admitted to the felony charge of "conspiracy to violate" various laws, including the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The 47-year-old Sudarshan faces a maximum punishment of five years in prison, a 250,000 dollar fine and three years of supervised release, a justice official said while talking to a French news agency. He is to be sentenced on June 16.

He was said to have provided export controlled microprocessors and electronic components to Indian state entities involved in developing ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, and fighter jets.

Among the recipients were the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), an enterprise within the Indian Department of Space; and Bharat Dynamics, Ltd. (BDL), an Indian Defense Ministry enterprise.

Both are on the US Department of Commerce's so-called Entity List. Exports of US-origin commodities to these entities are restricted and require prior authorization in the form of a license from the department. Sudarshan entered his guilty plea Thursday in a district court in Washington.

"The defendant participated in a clandestine network that circumvented our export laws and put sophisticated technology in the hands of foreign companies that were listed as end-users of concern for proliferation reasons," US Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said.

"With this prosecution, the defendant will no longer be able to make a profit at the expense of our national security," he said. Between 2002 and 2006, Sudarshan acquired electrical components with applications in missile guidance and firing systems in the United States for VSSC and BDL.

There were no export licenses for any of the shipments to VSSC and BDL. Sudarshan routed the products through his company's Singapore office and then sent the packages on to India to conceal that goods were going to entities on the Entity List, officials said.

In addition to supplying VSSC and BDL with components, Sudarshan acquired microprocessors for the Tejas, a fighter jet under development in India.

The microprocessors were necessary for the navigation and weapons systems of the Tejas.

Indian company chief admits smuggling weapons technology

It seems after all these years of so called indigenous development smuggled equipment finally got Tejas off the ground
Regards,

 

[Karma]

The microprocessors were necessary for the navigation and weapons systems of the Tejas.

Indian company chief admits smuggling weapons technology

It seems after all these years of so called indigenous development smuggled equipment finally got Tejas off the ground
Regards,​

Misleading title. He didn't smuggle any weapons technology. He simply smuggled the microprocessors. Those microprocessors are capable of operating under harsh environment.

The microprocessor itself will not provide the control and guidance for the missiles. You need to develop a platform around this processor and write a software to do the task. Only few countries were manufacturing such processors at that time. So, we have no choice.

A weapon that uses a processor made in USA doesn't mean that weapon technology is of US origin.​

 

[Imran Khan]

nice even you smuggle or theft for india every thing is fear.but the realty is he was chet with USA they give him job a big post but he show indian real face.

 

[doobie87]

nice even you smuggle or theft for india every thing is fear.but the realty is he was chet with USA they give him job a big post but he show indian real face.

you should elaborate on 'indian real face'. (elaborate, in this context, means that you should give 'further details')

 

[JimmyJ]

The number 'zero' or 0 was first used by Indians..It is now extensively used in all civilian and military applications. The US military hardware uses them

Man what a proliferation...

Indians should have created a Zero Control Regime similar to MTCR.

 

[Astra]

nice even you smuggle or theft for india every thing is fear.but the realty is he was chet with USA they give him job a big post but he show indian real face.

But we made our own Nuclear bombs-15 years before you could steal it.

And the world knows it!!

 

[Imran Khan]

from were you set own bomb man .whole world know truth is russia help you more then 70% of program .

 

[solid snake]

And they make fun of AQ Khan for stealing technology from the Dutch

 

[asaad-ul-islam]

Hal Tejas has had a LOT of help from france, britain, and possibly russia. besides that, it took decades to materialize and is still no where in sight.

I've seen a lot of indians ridicule JF-17 and chinese tech, but fortunately pakistan is already in the process of producing the second block, alhamdulillah.

 

[Neo]

Misleading title. He didn't smuggle any weapons technology. He simply smuggled the microprocessors. Those microprocessors are capable of operating under harsh environment.

The microprocessor itself will not provide the control and guidance for the missiles. You need to develop a platform around this processor and write a software to do the task. Only few countries were manufacturing such processors at that time. So, we have no choice.

A weapon that uses a processor made in USA doesn't mean that weapon technology is of US origin.

Whatever the purpose its stolen mate!

 

[Neo]

But we made our own Nuclear bombs-15 years before you could steal it.

And the world knows it!!

And how did you gain that technology?
By abusing nuclear infrastructure India became a Virtical Proliferator.

Btw, we didn't steal the bomb, we simply got the blueprints of Uranium Enrichment Facility (AQ Khan was a co-developper) from Almelo and smuggled the centrifuges before reverse engineering them, pretty much the same way you're trying to get western components for your defence industry.

The world will soon come to know it.

 

[Karma]

Whatever the purpose its stolen mate!

Not stolen. We bought it, though it violated export control laws. Again, I say that it doesn't make the "weapons are copied". Still the weapons are indigenous.

These processors can also be used to make toys. Juts the toys will be too expensive.

 

[araz]

Brothers
Why are we discussing this issue at all. International spying and stealing is an establishedterm and has been employed by all countries including USA. The nature of it may differ but the offence remains the same.For the first nuclear bomb Americans "employed" a lot of German scientists. Their first ICBM was based on a german design.Russia and China have also been involved in this activity as has Pakistan. There was a man caught in the early 80s with what I remember to be switches that were used in trigerring of nuclear devices.Please remember that AQ Khan became a hero because he succeeded in smuggling Nuclear blue prints across. If he had been caught, he would have been languishing in some jail rather than where he is today. The moral of the story is do anything as long as you dont get caught.This poor man got caught.Thats all there is to it.
Araz

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Not stolen. We bought it, though it violated export control laws. Again, I say that it doesn't make the "weapons are copied". Still the weapons are indigenous.

These processors can also be used to make toys. Juts the toys will be too expensive.

The exact same argument can be applied to Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. The centrifuges were but one "component" of an extremely complex nuclear program - that does not by any means mean that the "weapons" were copied - the majority of the program was indigenous...

That said, I agree with Araz's post - the point is moot - almost every nation has relied on technology from another source to enhance its program....

 

[Vinod2070]

Good point Araz. There is no need for hypocritical soundbytes on this minor incident.

Microprocessors are pretty much "commodity" now. Though a high tech commodity. By themselves they do not make a weapon.