Military Accelerometers to China

On November 18, 2013, Bin Yang aka “Raymond Yang”, a citizen and resident of China, was sentenced in the Southern District of California to 27 months imprisonment, 3 years of supervised release and $100 special assessment. Previously, on January 10, 2013, Yang pled guilty to count one of the Indictment charging the defendant with smuggling goods from the United States and conspiracy to export to China defense articles — specifically accelerometers used in aircraft, missiles, “smart” munitions and in measuring explosions. Yang was first charged in a criminal complaint on December 7, 2011 and later arrested on January 4, 2012, by Bulgarian authorities in Sofia, Bulgaria, pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest warrant. According to the complaint, Yang, operating out of Changsha Harsay Industry Co., Ltd. in Hunan, China, posted a request for Honeywell accelerometers in an online business-to-business forum in August 2010. An undercover federal agent responded to the request and agreed to supply the requested accelerometers. After nearly a year of negotiations, with no deal finalized, Yang allegedly asked for Endevco 7270-200K accelerometers, which are used for “smart” munitions, bunker-busting bombs and measuring ground motions caused by nuclear and chemical explosions, among other things. In August and October 2011, Yang allegedly caused two payments totaling $4,875 to be sent to the undercover agent as a down payment for the accelerometers. According to the complaint, Yang subsequently agreed to meet with the undercover agent in Bulgaria so the undercover agent could hand deliver two Endevco accelerometers to him. After his arrest in Bulgaria, Yang was charged on January 13, 2012 in a five-count indictment returned in the Southern District of California. In May 2012, a Bulgarian court signed a final order of extradition and Yang was extradited to the United States to face charges against him. On May 21, 2012, Yang was arraigned in the Southern District of California. This investigation was conducted by ICE.