WASHINGTON-The State Department last week charged Lockheed Martin Corp., a top space-based wireless system vendor and integrator, with numerous violations of U.S. export control law by giving a Chinese-controlled firm technological assistance in 1994 before the launch of a rocket carrying a telecom satellite.
The State Department, which informed the Bethesda, Md.-based firm of the alleged 30 infractions in a six-page letter last Tuesday, gave Lockheed Martin 30 days to respond. The charges could carry up to $15 million in fines and restrict Lockheed Martin from exporting satellite technology for three years.
“This happened in 1994. The corporation believes the actions taken then were reasonable and consistent with the satellite export licenses in place at that time,” said James Fetig, a Lockheed Martin spokesman. “This is a dispute over the interpretation over those licenses. It’s an administrative and not a criminal violation. National security was not harmed.”
But State’s Office of Defense Trade Controls said the U.S. government is free to pursue civil as well as criminal enforcement of any violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Fetig said Lockheed Martin tried to resolve differences with State, but when that failed, it turned to the administrative process that now has the high-tech giant looking at the possibility of stiff penalties.
Lockheed Martin is the latest in a string of satellite and aeronautical firms accused of technology transfers to China. Hughes Corp. and Loral Corp. were investigated for allegedly helping China refine its satellite and rocket technology, the kind of expertise that can be easily converted from commercial to military application. Both firms deny they compromised national security.
The technology transfer controversy has bled into the political arena, with Republicans claiming that campaign contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign contributed to lax oversight of high-tech exports to China.
In this case, according to Washington Post research, most of Lockheed Martin’s political donations have gone to Republicans.
The GOP-led Congress last year returned primary oversight of high-tech exports to the State Department. In 1994, under Clinton, State lost jurisdiction over high-tech exports to the trade-oriented Commerce Department.
