A man from San Jose, California, has been charged with smuggling and violating export control laws after allegedly sending sensitive aviation software to a public university in Beijing.
Jonathan Yet Wing Soong, 34, worked as Program Administrator for the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) between April 2016 and September 2020. USRA is contracted by NASA to “distribute domestically and internationally sensitive aerospace related software developed through the Army Software Transfer Agreement (STA) program, “according to a news release published by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday.
As a program administrator, Soong had primary access to sensitive data. He generated, among other things, software licenses and physically exported software.
The 19-page complaint against Soong claimed that he “facilitated the sale and transfer of software” to Beihang University – also known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) – which happens to be included in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s strictly regulated “Unity List.” Due to his involvement in the Chinese government’s military missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicle systems, Beihang came on the list and is banned from receiving certain items without a license.
Soong has reportedly exported CIFER, a software package for the manufacture of unmanned aircraft. Prosecutors said he became aware of Beihang’s inclusion on the device list in April 2017, but he continued to facilitate the transfer of CIFER to Beihang and succeeded in July 2018.
A certain Beijing Rainbow Technical Development Ltd. acted as an intermediary according to the complaint. Soong allegedly received payment from this intermediary after arranging for CIFER’s transfer and having his passwords sent to Beihang.
USRA allegedly received a bank transfer of $ 2,182 for the sale in January 2018. According to the complaint, Soong also admitted that the nonprofit organization did not always receive the payments for the software he had sold, as some of them went to his own account.
“He claimed that when customers wanted to pay by credit card, USRA did not have a method set up to accept credit card payments. He claimed that he justified the payments as giving himself a ‘bonus’, and estimated that he stole ‘tens of thousands’ ‘over the years, it sounded in the complaint.
Soong has been charged with a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and a case of smuggling. The IEEPA violation carries a $ 1 million fine and a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, while the number of smugglers carries a fine of $ 250,000 and a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Photo: Beihang University
Source: Community 99