26 Jan 2011

US court jails man for 32 years for selling secrets

9:33 am on 26 January 2011

A court in Hawaii has sentenced a US engineer who sold sensitive military technology to China to 32 years in prison.

Indian-born Noshir Gowadia helped design the propulsion system for the B-2 stealth bomber.

He was convicted last year of selling information which helped China build a stealth cruise missile.

He was said to have been paid $US110,000 which he used to pay off a mortgage on a luxury home on the island of Maui.

Prosecutors had hoped for a life sentence.

His defence lawyers argued that he only provided information which was unclassified and freely available.

However Chief US District Judge Susan Oki Mollway said Gowadia "broke his oath of loyalty" to the United States, and had been was found guilty of marketing valuable technology to foreign countries for personal gain.