A former U.S. defence contractor was sentenced to 57 months in prison for conspiring to send sensitive military technical data to an unnamed person in India in violation of the U.S. arms export regulations, between 2010 and 2012.
Hannah Robert of New Jersey had pleaded guilty to the charges. She was also convicted of supplying substandard spare parts to the U.S. Defence Department, including for the U.S. F15 fighter planes, which led to 47 of them being grounded.
“Along with a resident of India identified only as P.R., Robert owned and operated a company located in India that manufactured defense hardware items and spare parts,” a release by the U.S. Department of Justice said.
She exported technical drawings of parts used in the torpedo systems for nuclear submarines, military attack helicopters and F-15 fighter aircraft to India.
Ms. Robert and her unnamed Indian partner had evolved a digital subterfuge to transfer military data illegally to India. She would upload these restricted technical data and drawings on a password protected website of a church that she volunteered for, and her Indian partner would download it.
“Through the course of the scheme, Robert uploaded thousands of technical drawings to the church website for P.R. to download in India,” the Department of Justice said.
“In addition to United States’ sales, Robert and P.R. sold defence hardware items to foreign customers,” including to an unspecified end user in Pakistan.
