A federal judge on Thursday ordered a two-year prison term for a 67-year-old engineer who worked as an operative for the Chinese government in buying American nuclear information for China.
Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan said the case of engineer Szuhsiung “Allen” Ho did not neatly fit into the category of crimes for which he pleaded guilty since that category often involves the actual possession of or threat of “weapons of mass destruction.”
“This is, in fact, an atypical case,” Varlan said in ordering up a two-year sentence in what is the first-of-its-kind prosecution involving American nuclear technology secretly purchased by China. “The court finds (Ho’s) conduct not as serious as those offenses (involving weapons of mass destruction) described (in the law).”
Ho also was sentenced to one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $20,000.
Engineer: I'm no spy
Ho insists via defense attorneys Wade Davies and Peter Zeidenberg he was not trying to help China actually produce nuclear weapons. The information he bought for China – using secret computer programs and secret shell companies – related to the production of nuclear energy.
But a by-product of nuclear power production can be used to make nuclear weapons, and China and a handful of other countries deemed by the U.S. government as potential threats are forbidden without U.S. approval from getting any information on American nuclear technology.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles Atchley and Bart Slabbekorn contend that while Ho might not have intended to assist China in beefing up its military nuclear weapon program, China simply cannot be trusted to act responsibly.
Ho had faced as many as 71 months in prison, but, as a key catch for the intelligence communities of the U.S. and its foreign allies, Ho’s “multiple briefings” about China rated a recommendation from Atchley and Slabbekorn of a reduced sentence of 33 months. Ho’s defense team wanted an even bigger break, noting Ho spent nine months in solitary confinement after his arrest last year.
First-of-its kind prosecution
Ho, his firm Energy Technology International, and Chinese nuclear power plant China General Nuclear Power were indicted in April 2016 in an alleged plot to lure nuclear experts in the U.S. into providing information to allow China to develop and produce nuclear material based on American technology and below the radar of the U.S. government.
It is the first such case in the nation brought under a provision of law that regulates the sharing of U.S. nuclear technology with certain countries deemed too untrustworthy to see it. Those countries include China.
The Chinese government refuses to even acknowledge the indictment of its own nuclear power company.
Atchley has said China paid millions for the information – which included paying American engineers to travel to China to consult on nuclear technology – Ho secured. Ho is a native of Taiwan but also a naturalized U.S. citizen, which made him valuable to China. Atchley said Ho used secret computer programs and shell companies to hide his thievery of American nuclear technology reports.
The investigation began at the behest of the Tennessee Valley Authority Office of the Inspector General, which contacted the FBI with concerns about Guey, then one of TVA's senior executives.
Guey later admitted he was paid by Ho and, by extension the Chinese government, to supply information about nuclear power production and even traveled to China on the Chinese government's dime.
Guey agreed to cooperate in the probe. He has since struck a plea deal and faces sentencing next month.
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