Investing.com -- A California woman was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison on Friday for conspiring to export fighter jet engines and a drone to China in violation of the Arms Export Control Act as part of a multi-year, $50 million scheme.
Wenxia Man, 45, of San Diego was convicted in early-June by a federal jury in the Southern District of Florida on one count of conspiring to export and facilitating the export of defense weapons to China without a license. In October, 2015, Man was charged with the brokering of illegal military weapons in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after prosecutors accused her of conspiring with informants, who were employed as undercover agents with the Office of Homeland Security, according to court records. Man also allegedly conspired with Xinsheng Zhang, a suspect referred to by prosecutors as a "technology spy," to illegally acquire and export an unmanned drone and other technology to China for a three-year period from 2011-2013.
According to court records, one of the vehicles included an MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B drone that is capable of firing long-distance Hellfire Missiles. The AGM-114 Hellfire missiles developed by companies such as Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC), priced at approximately $110,000 per unit, are viewed by defense experts as among the world's deadliest weapons for unmanned aerial vehicles. During the investigation, Man allegedly referred to Zhang as someone who worked in conjunction with the Chinese military to replicate items from foreign military forces for intelligence purposes, court records show.
In addition, Man allegedly conspired with Zhang to export a host of defensive articles including: F135-PW-100 engines from Pratt & Whitney used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F119-PW-100 turbofan engines used in the F-22 Raptor fighter jet also from Pratt & Whitney and F110-GE-132 engines designed for the F-16 fighter jet manufactured by General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). At the time of her arrest, Man served as the vice president of AFC Microelectronics Corp. in California.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of Florida and the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.