Nation's First Economic Espionage Trial

His lawyer said he was a packrat, but not a spy. Still judge has convicted a 73-year-old Chinese-born engineer who worked for both Boeing and Rockwell of stealing secrets critical to the U.S. Space Program. He was found guilty on six counts of economic espionage.

The Associated Press reports that investigators found Dongfan "Greg" Chung's home piled with sensitive documents, including plans for a rocket booster refueling system developed by Boeing. In all, he was accused of stealing some 300,000 pages of documents from his employers, some of which were supposed to be covered under a "clean desk" policy, that is, locked away at the close of business each day. Prosecutors said Chung began spying for the Chinese as early as the 1970's, and he was ultimately charged with conspiracy, economic espionage, lying to federal agents, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent. Chung pleaded not guilty to all charges and requested a non-jury trial.

Chung's attorneys said he was guilty at most of violating Boeing's policy against bringing hope papers, but that the government could not prove he had sold or given any information to China.

Chung was charged under the The Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which was designed to help the government crack down on the theft of information from private companies with contracts to develop U.S. space and military technologies.

FMI: www.doj.gov