PressTV-Woman gets jail for drone export to China
California Resident Convicted of Conspiring to Illegally Export Fighter Jet Engines and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to China
Woman gets more than four years in prison for S. Fla. plot to sell $50M drone to China
Bizarre story!
A U.S. citizen was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison Friday for conspiring to send a $50 million missile-firing drone and jet fighter engines to China.
Wenxia Man, 45, of San Diego, had two motives, the sentencing judge told her: Earning what she hoped would be a $1 million commission and helping China to try to match U.S. military equipment and technology.
If Man had succeeded in what she thought was a genuine conspiracy, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom told her she would have endangered the national security of her adopted country, the United States. In fact, Man was communicating with an undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations.
The undercover investigation began after Man, who ran a business with her husband that produces small electronic components used in cellphones and radios, asked an "industry source" if a jet fighter engine would be problematic to export, according to trial testimony.
The person she spoke to reported her to federal authorities.
Man sent texts in Mandarin Chinese to the undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations who was the star witness against her — while he was on the witness stand testifying against her. Translations of the texts were not made public.
This was her shopping list - According to evidence presented at trial, between approximately March 2011 and June 2013, Man conspired with Xinsheng Zhang, who was located in China, to illegally acquire and export to China defense articles including: Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines used in the F-22 Raptor fighter jet; General Electric F110-GE-132 engines designed for the F-16 fighter jet; the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, capable of firing Hellfire Missiles; and technical data for each of these defense articles.
California Resident Convicted of Conspiring to Illegally Export Fighter Jet Engines and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to China
Woman gets more than four years in prison for S. Fla. plot to sell $50M drone to China
Bizarre story!
A U.S. citizen was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison Friday for conspiring to send a $50 million missile-firing drone and jet fighter engines to China.
Wenxia Man, 45, of San Diego, had two motives, the sentencing judge told her: Earning what she hoped would be a $1 million commission and helping China to try to match U.S. military equipment and technology.
If Man had succeeded in what she thought was a genuine conspiracy, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom told her she would have endangered the national security of her adopted country, the United States. In fact, Man was communicating with an undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations.
The undercover investigation began after Man, who ran a business with her husband that produces small electronic components used in cellphones and radios, asked an "industry source" if a jet fighter engine would be problematic to export, according to trial testimony.
The person she spoke to reported her to federal authorities.
Man sent texts in Mandarin Chinese to the undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations who was the star witness against her — while he was on the witness stand testifying against her. Translations of the texts were not made public.
This was her shopping list - According to evidence presented at trial, between approximately March 2011 and June 2013, Man conspired with Xinsheng Zhang, who was located in China, to illegally acquire and export to China defense articles including: Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines used in the F-22 Raptor fighter jet; General Electric F110-GE-132 engines designed for the F-16 fighter jet; the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, capable of firing Hellfire Missiles; and technical data for each of these defense articles.