Chi Mak and his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, and Chi's brother, Tai Wang Mak, and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, were charged by federal authorities in Los Angeles for alleged conspiracy to steal U.S. military technology, including a quiet propulsion system for Navy warships, and turned over the intelligence to the People's Republic of China
Chi and his wife are originally from China and became naturalized U.S. citizens 20 years ago and Tai and his wife, also from China, are lawful U.S. permanent residents.
Chi was the lead project engineer on a Power Paragon research project involving the Navy's Quiet Electric Drive propulsion system, a technology so sensitive that it has been banned from export to certain countries, including China.
All four suspects were arrested October 4 night after a federal judge issued a sealed arrest
warrant based on the FBI's suspicion that Tai and his wife were about to leave the U.S. with the
encrypted data on a midnight flight to Guangzhou.
The defendants are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 15. (Source" AP and Los
Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 2005).