Ex-Lockheed agent pleads guilty to China arms plot

An F-16 fighter jet takes off from Taiwan's Hualien air base during a military drill, August 17, 2004.

A Taiwanese man who worked as a sales representative for the Pentagon's biggest supplier pleaded guilty on Wednesday to plotting to ship to China advanced U.S. weapons, including an F-16 fighter engine and nuclear-capable cruise missiles. (Richard Chung/Reuters)

By Jim Wolf
May 17, 2006

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Taiwanese man who worked as a sales representative for the Pentagon's biggest supplier pleaded guilty on Wednesday to plotting to ship to China advanced U.S. weapons, including an F-16 fighter engine and nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

Ko-Suen Moo, of Taipei, Taiwan, also pleaded guilty in federal court in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to being a covert agent for China, U.S. law enforcement officials said.

Moo, 58, represented Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - news), the industry-leading U.S. defense contractor, in Taiwan for more than 10 years, the company said.

Spokesman Thomas Jurkowsky said all Lockheed's agreements with Moo's company, Rayton Communications Inc., were ended on or about January 10 this year.

Moo was charged on February 9 along with Maurice Serge Voros of Paris, France. Moo has been in custody since November and faces up to 30 years in prison and fines totaling $2 million. Voros is a fugitive. A sentencing date was not scheduled.

Among weapons Moo and others were negotiating to buy for China were AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles, designed to carry an air-launched nuclear warhead up to 2,000 miles, law-enforcement officials said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy did not return a phone call seeking comment. In the past, China has denied allegations that it has covert agents in the United States trying to buy military gear on its behalf.

A spokesman for Taiwan's representative office in Washington, Albert Liu, said the office, known as TECRO, had had no dealings with Moo.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Defense Department singled out China as having the greatest potential among major and emerging powers to compete militarily with the United States over coming decades.

"This case demonstrates, in the clearest terms possible, the need to protect sensitive U.S. technology from illegal foreign acquisition," said Julie Myers, assistant homeland security secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Moo and Voros had sought engines for the F-16 fighter and Blackhawk helicopter as well as the Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTN - news)-built cruise missiles and AIM 120 Advanced Medium-Range air-to-air missiles, which feature state-of-the-art active radar target tracking capabilities, the indictment said.

Lockheed, the biggest supplier of military-related equipment to Taiwan, has been assured by the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of Florida that it is neither a subject nor a target of its investigation of Moo, Jurkowsky said.

In addition, the company is not aware of any of its products or technologies that were illegally exported to China, he said.

Moo agreed to forfeit his interest in about $350,000 that was seized during the investigation, including $140,000 transferred by wire to cover transport of an F-16 engine to Shenyang Taoxian International airport in China.

Moo also pleaded guilty to trying to bribe his way out of jail. He wired $199,985 as part of a planned $500,000 payoff to an unnamed official in anticipation of his supposed release and dismissal of charges, the law-enforcement officials' statement said.