US National Accused of Sending Military Blueprints to India
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It was the installation of these faulty Indian-made wing pins, which forced the US Air Force to ultimately ground as many as 47 F-15 fighter aircraft for inspection and repair, resulting in a loss to the government of about USD 166,000, federal prosecutors alleged. Luba, who now faces a maximum penalty of a USD 1 million fine and 20 years of imprisonment, has agreed to pay back approximately USD 173,000 to the Department of Defence, which includes the cost of repair for the grounded F-15s.
His sentencing is scheduled for February 19, 2014. "By recklessly providing sub-standard parts for sophisticated weapons systems and sharing sensitive information with a foreign state, Luba not only jeopardised the lives of men and women on the front lines of our national defence, he put all Americans at risk, all in the name of making a buck," Attorney Paul J Fishman said. The indictment alleges that Luba, owner of OneSource USA, used the password-protected website of a New Jersey church to transmit the blueprints for hundreds of defence hardware items to a conspirator in India, without the church's knowledge.
It also does not give details of where in India the faulty parts for the fighter jets were manufactured. In court papers, the Indian source is identified as RP. "Luba would e-mail this contact — identified in court papers only as 'RP' — technical data for spare parts needed by the DoD so that RP and Luba could decide how much they would charge, and Luba could decide whether he could bid on the DoD contracts.
The technical blueprints that Luba e-mailed to RP in India included technical data protected under export control laws," the Department of Justice said. "These e-mails included a technical drawing for a hardware item known as the "Torpedo Tube, Open Breech Door, Gagging Collar A" for installation in a nuclear-powered military submarine," it said.
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