Jonathan Yet Wing Soong, a 34-year-old resident of San Jose, California, has been charged with smuggling and violating export control laws by allegedly secretly funneling sensitive aeronautics software to a Beijing university.
According to a complaint filed May 23, 2022, and unsealed today, Soong was employed by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) between April 2016 and September 2020 as a program administrator. USRA is a nonprofit corporation contracted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to distribute domestically and internationally sensitive aeronautics-related software developed through the Army’s Software Transfer Agreement (STA) program.
As USRA’s STA program administrator, Soong was responsible for overseeing certain software license sales, conducting export compliance screening of customers, generating software licenses, and, on occasion, physically exporting software. Soong is alleged to have been trained in and been aware of export compliance rules which, among other things, restrict sales and exports to certain entities.
The complaint describes rules that restrict sales of certain technology to entities on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List (Entity List), a list with associated regulations that are maintained by the Department of Commerce pursuant to federal statutory and presidential directive. The Entity List and associated regulations prohibit export without a license of certain technology with commercial and potential military applications to entities and individuals whose activities have been found to be contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.
The complaint alleges Soong unlawfully and without a license exported and facilitated the sale and transfer of software to an entity on the Entity List—Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA), which is also known as Beihang University. According to the complaint, Beihang University was added to the Entity List due to the University’s involvement in People’s Republic of China military rocket systems and unmanned air vehicle systems.
The complaint alleges Soong used an intermediary in hopes that the illegal transfer would not be detected. At issue in the case is a software package that is marketed for the development of unmanned aircraft. The Army flight-control software packages, referred to in the complaint as CIFER, performed as a tool to allow a user to develop a dynamic model of an aircraft based on collective flight test data. The package could be used to analyze and design aircraft control systems.
According to the complaint, in April 2017, Soong became aware that BUAA was on the Entity List and nonetheless arranged to sell and transfer the CIFER software package to BUAA. Soong ultimately exported directly to Beihang University in July 2018. The complaint alleges that Soong arranged to sell the CIFER software package to Beijing Rainbow Technical Development Ltd., as an intermediary for the purchase to disguise BUAA’s involvement, as Soong knew that BUAA could not receive this technology without a license from the Department of Commerce.
Soong made his initial appearance to face the charges in federal court earlier today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero. The allegations against Soong were set out in a complaint filed May 23, 2022, and unsealed today.
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Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: Cybercrime|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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