Conviction for Violating the Economic Espionage Act and Arms Export Control Act

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced the guilty plea of a defendant for trying to send to China the computer source code for a visual simulation software program used for training military fighter pilots.  The defendant pleaded guilty to violating the Economic Espionage Act, because the code constitutes a trade secret, and for violating the Arms Export Control Act along with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.  According to a press release (here) issued by the USAO: "This conviction, the first in the nation for illegal exports of military-related source code, demonstrates the importance of safeguarding our nation’s military secrets and should serve notice to others who would compromise our national security for profit." (ph)