Kalibr cruise missiles and Kinzhal hypersonic aero-ballistic ballistic missiles firing in the Black Sea in 2020. A Chinese national was arrested this week in connection with stealing information related to similar missiles. File Photo by Alexei Druzhinin/EPA-EFE

They are charged with “an alleged conspiracy to illegally export U.S. goods and technology without the required licenses,” a statement from the Justice Department said.

In the Central District of California, a Chinese national was arrested for allegedly stealing trade secrets developed for use by the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

“One year ago, I launched the Disruptive Technology Strike Force to strike back against adversaries trying to steal our nation’s most powerful technology and use it against us,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Since then, working with our partners at the Commerce Department, we have arrested more than a dozen corporate executives, engineers, distributors and other high-profile targets on charges that include sanctions and export control violations, and other offenses involving the unlawful transfer of sensitive information and technology.”

Monaco said the three additional arrests highlight the importance of the focus on rooting out white collar crime in the tech industry.

“Today’s charges against three additional defendants for seeking to illegally transfer U.S. software and semiconductor technology with military applications to benefit Iran and China highlight the critical importance of our fight against this national security threat,” Monaco continued.

According to court documents, between January 2008 and August 2019, Abolfazi Bazzazi, 79, of Iran, and his son Mohammad Resa Bazzazi, 43, of Iran, and their co-conspirators sought to evade U.S. sanctions and export laws by working to procure goods and technology, including aeronautical ground support equipment, ultraviolet flame detectors and firefighting equipment, from U.S. companies for end users in Iran, including the Iranian government, without obtaining the required licenses or other authorization from the United States.

“As alleged, the Bazzazis devised an intricate scheme to evade U.S. export laws in obtaining U.S. equipment and technology to be exported to Iran and for the Government of Iran which has been designated by the United States government as a state sponsor of terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York.

The documents claim the defendants sought to obtain components that could be used by Iran’s aerospace industry. They also disguised the final destination of those U.S. goods by attempting to forward them through intermediaries in Europe and elsewhere.

In the third case, Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, Calif., was arrested Tuesday in San Jose and charged with theft of trade secrets.

According to court documents, Gong transferred more than 3,600 files from the research and development company where he worked — identified in court documents as the victim company — to personal storage devices during his brief tenure with the company last year.

The files Gong allegedly transferred include blueprints for sophisticated infrared sensors designed for use in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures, including by jamming the missiles’ infrared tracking ability, the Justice Department said.

“We will do everything to protect our nation’s security, including from foreign threats,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “Mr. Gong, who had previously sought to provide the People’s Republic of China with information to aid its military, stole sensitive and confidential information related to detecting nuclear missile launches and tracking ballistic and hypersonic missiles. We know that foreign actors, including the PRC, are actively seeking to steal our technology, but we will remain vigilant against this threat and remain vigilant against this threat by safeguarding the innovations of American businesses and researchers.”

Gong is a native of China and became a United States citizen in 2011.