Ex-Lockheed agent pleads guilty to China arms plot

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Taiwanese man who worked as a
sales representative for the Pentagon’s biggest supplier
pleaded guilty on Wednesday to plotting to ship to China
advanced U.S. weapons, including an F-16 fighter engine and
nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

Ko-Suen Moo, of Taipei, Taiwan, also pleaded guilty in
federal court in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to being a covert
agent for China, U.S. law enforcement officials said.

Moo, 58, represented Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed
Martin Corp., the industry-leading U.S. defense contractor, in
Taiwan for more than 10 years, the company said.

Spokesman Thomas Jurkowsky said all Lockheed’s agreements
with Moo’s company, Rayton Communications Inc., were ended on
or about January 10 this year.

Moo was charged on February 9 along with Maurice Serge
Voros of Paris, France. Moo has been in custody since November
and faces up to 30 years in prison and fines totaling $2
million. Voros is a fugitive. A sentencing date was not
scheduled.

Among weapons Moo and others were negotiating to buy for
China were AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles, designed to carry
an air-launched nuclear warhead up to 2,000 miles,
law-enforcement officials said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy did not return a phone
call seeking comment. In the past, China has denied allegations
that it has covert agents in the United States trying to buy
military gear on its behalf.

A spokesman for Taiwan’s representative office in
Washington, Albert Liu, said the office, known as TECRO, had
had no dealings with Moo.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Defense Department singled out
China as having the greatest potential among major and emerging
powers to compete militarily with the United States over coming
decades.

“This case demonstrates, in the clearest terms possible,
the need to protect sensitive U.S. technology from illegal
foreign acquisition,” said Julie Myers, assistant homeland
security secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.

Moo and Voros had sought engines for the F-16 fighter and
Blackhawk helicopter as well as the Raytheon Co.-built cruise
missiles and AIM 120 Advanced Medium-Range air-to-air missiles,
which feature state-of-the-art active radar target tracking
capabilities, the indictment said.

Lockheed, the biggest supplier of military-related
equipment to Taiwan, has been assured by the U.S. Attorney for
the southern district of Florida that it is neither a subject
nor a target of its investigation of Moo, Jurkowsky said.

In addition, the company is not aware of any of its
products or technologies that were illegally exported to China,
he said.

Moo agreed to forfeit his interest in about $350,000 that
was seized during the investigation, including $140,000
transferred by wire to cover transport of an F-16 engine to
Shenyang Taoxian International airport in China.

Moo also pleaded guilty to trying to bribe his way out of
jail. He wired $199,985 as part of a planned $500,000 payoff to
an unnamed official in anticipation of his supposed release and
dismissal of charges, the law-enforcement officials’ statement
said.