A Chinese-born engineer accused of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China acknowledged Thursday on the witness stand that he had copied classified documents from his defense contractor employer and illegally kept copies in his office.
Chi Mak, 66, also acknowledged during cross-examination that he lied repeatedly to FBI agents during an hours-long interrogation immediately after his arrest and lied on his U.S. immigration form years ago.
Authorities believe Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen, took thousands of pages of documents from his employer, Power Paragon of Anaheim, and gave them to his brother, who passed them along to Chinese authorities over a number of years.
Mak was arrested in 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong. Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in their luggage containing documents on a submarine propulsion system, a solid-state power switch for ships, and a Power Point presentation on the future of power electronics.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to export defense material to China, failure to register as a foreign agent, attempted and actual export of defense articles and making false statements. His wife, brother and other relatives also have been indicted.
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