Stolen Military Night Vision Systems to Hong Kong

On July 5, 2012, Ryan Mathers was sentenced in the District of Hawaii to 48 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, $1,100 special assessment, and ordered to pay the U.S. Marine Corps $39,677. Previously, on April 25, 2011, Mathers pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy to illegally export stolen military night vision goggles. On October 29, 2008, a criminal complaint was filed in the District of Hawaii against Mathers and five other U.S. Marines based at Kane’ohe Bay, Hawaii, for conspiring to illegally export stolen military night vision equipment. Mathers, Charles Carper, Ronald William Abram, Jason Flegm, Mark Vaught, and Brendon Shultz were each charged with conspiracy to smuggle goods out of the United States. According to the complaint, the investigation began when agents learned that one of the defendants was selling stolen U.S. military night vision equipment on the Internet via eBay. A cooperating defendant subsequently purchased several night vision systems from the defendants, representing they would be illegally exported to Hong Kong. The Court later dismissed the indictment against defendants Schultz (April 24, 2009), Flegm (March 5, 2009), and Vaught (March 24, 2009) and a second superseding indictment was filed on April 14, 2010 charging Defendants Mathers, Carper, Abram, and Joshua Vaughn with conspiring to illegally export stolen military night vision monocular devices. On June 8, 2010, Carper pleaded guilty and was sentenced on September 30, 2010 to 36 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, $400 special assessment, and ordered to pay the U.S. Marine Corps $7,214. On June 10, 2010, Abram pleaded guilty and was sentenced on October 25, 2010 to 57 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, $200 special assessment, and ordered to pay the U.S. Marine Corps $1,329. The court dismissed the second superseding indictment against Vaughn. The case was investigated by ICE, DCIS, and NCIS.