Slashdot Mirror
Russian High-Tech Export Scandal Produces 8 Arrests in Houston
Penurious Penguin writes "Millionaire Alexander Fishenko, owner of US-based Arc Electronics Inc, and seven others have been arrested in Houston Texas, with a total of 11 indicted in a conspiracy to smuggle advanced microelectronics from the U.S. to Russia. The technology allegedly involves components of radar, weapons guidance, and detonators. Amongst the evidence are accounting records indicating notable similarity between the revenue of Arc Electronics and the Russian Federation's defense spending; intercepted phone calls and emails; and a letter to Arc Electronics from a Russian domestic intelligence lab complaining of defective microchips . A Russian foreign ministry spokesman has denied there were any intelligence connections in the affair."
and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious microchips.
Microelectronics that are "components of radar, weapons guidance, and detonators". So, a DSP? A microcontroller? FPGAs?
As if none of that shit is manufactured in asia anyway. Conspirancy to smuggle? More like tax fraud under an heroic excuse.
Next time take a page from the Chinese and just convince the target country to manufacture the components in your country in the first place.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Is it any news that the Russians 'borrow` a lot of their tech from the west. I understand you could get such 'advanced microelectronics` in a games console. Wasn't it the case, some time ago, that a middle-eastern country was going round buying up games consoles for the chips?
AccountKiller
Nothing is actually made in the US any more. The big bucks here are in intellectual property and patent litigation: Samsung vs Apple.
The Chinese are ahead of the curve on this. They know the best way to gain advantage is to use cyber-theft to steal IP. It is very cost effective and produces quick results.
Unlike export controls, there is no national policy on protecting IP online. Every time someone in the government (Democrats mostly) brings it up business interests scream about government interference, needless regulations and creeping bureaucracy.
If something is stolen via cyber-theft, their is no legal consequence. Even in the military sector, none of the big defense contractors ever are fined or loose contracts because they leak classified information like a sieve.
Heck, now with the complete lack of controls on campaign contributions it would be cheap to insure that the current online vulnerabilities remain the norm. All you have to do is give some money to the right elected officials in Congress, and stealing US technology will remain as easy as taking candy from a baby.
The Russians need to get with the program and copy what the Chinese are already doing. They should be spending more money on PACs, and stop wasting effort on smuggling.
Why is Snark Required?
Why the middle man - why not smuggle the stuff directly from China?
Put it this way, would you rather get caught smuggling from the USA or from China? I'm sure neither are pleasant, but I suspect that one is considerably worse than the other.
Yes, Iraq supposedly bought 4000+ Playstation 2s to model nuclear detonations, there was at least one slashdot story about it.
Of course, if you believe what the western press reported about Iraqi weapons programs in that era, I have a very nice bridge and 400 kilos of yellowcake Uranium to sell you...
0 1 - just my two bits
Starting in the 1970s, Russian immigrants came to this area in great numbers. They are bordered on the South by a large Hispanic population, on the East by a large East Asian and Indian population, and on the West by rural communities and exburbs.
A/D converters, processors, SRAM, Microcontrollers. Basic chinese mass market kit.
The faulty chips seems to be these ones (from the part number):
http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/81901/AD/ADG819BRT.html
It's a CMOS single pole, double throw switch. Yes, seriously, takes me back to my childhood! 74LS00's an all.
Read the indictment:
http://federalcrimesblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/letter-to-the-court-moving-for-a-permanent-order-of-detention.pdf
Better still read the ACTUAL quotes from the people accused, removing the FBI inuendo:
Fishenko writes: “in a more presentable format”
FBI writes:
"For example, on September 24, 2009, Fishenko engaged in
an email exchange with an employee of a Russian procurement firm.
Fishenko requested that the employee get an end user document
from a Russian factory “in a more presentable format” The next
day, the employee responded and attached a new end user
statement, explaining, “This letter is pure forgery. I made it
using a copy machine.”"
Fishenko writes: “our person,‘zakinuty kazachok."
I write: zakinuty kazachok translates as "abandoned cossak", I don't know if it means spy, Google translate doesn't say.
FBI writes:
"Fishenko has referenced his ties to Russia’s
intelligence services. For example, in an October 24, 2011
conversation with another Russian electronics broker, Fishenko
and the broker discussed an individual who worked at the broker’s
firm who, they believed, had been an intelligence officer with
the FBI. Fishenko stated that the man was “our [type of] person,
‘zakinuty kazachok.’” “Zakinuty kazachok” (literally “thrown
Cossack”) is a Russian colloquialism for “spy” or “secret agent.”
Posobilov writes: "ake sure that those are fishing boats, and not fishing/anti-submarine ones... Then we’ll be able to start working."
I write: Russian military have Glosnass GPS, they don't use civilian US GPS that doesn't support GLOSNASS, because civilian US GPS can be degraded at will. So we know for sure this wasn't for military use.
FBI writes:
"Posobilov has also made explicit statements that
demonstrate his intent to evade export laws and defraud
suppliers. For example, on April 4, 2011, Posobilov exchanged
emails with a U.S. vendor regarding an order for certain parts.
Posobilov indicated that the parts were for “fishing boat radar
equipment” and provided the name and address of a Russian end
user. The vendor informed Posobilov that the requested parts
required an export license for Russia and indicated that,
therefore, the vendor would need a more complete end use
statement. Posobilov then forwarded this exchange to the Russian
procurement firm, instructing them to coach the end user to
complete the end use declaration in such a manner as to
facilitate obtaining the controlled component. Posobilov wrote,
“[m]ake sure that those are fishing boats, and not
fishing/anti-submarine ones... Then we’ll be able to start
working.”
The US has a trump card of its own. It's still the breadbasket of the world, and while military war machines depend on manufacturing, so too do soldiers depend on food. Additionally, in a world war it also has two huge oceans and the vast Canadian wilderness protecting it from attack (barring people with nukes going insane, of course). Unless someone can convince Canadians or Mexicans to flip their allegiances, it has the option of going pure offense or pure isolationist. Very few countries can do this.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
... I would like to know if what they stole is actually of use? Or is it some kind of commercial grade stuff that you can buy in Radio Shack anyway, and they just pretended to run some super secret covert ops to ship it over to get funding? (given the level of corruption, this wouldn't be unusual or unprecedented)
I mean, c'mon, I pay taxes which are used to fund this stuff, and then they squander them on the likes of Anna Chapman.
Actually, Dow Chemical owns UCC since 2001 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Chemical_Company#Bhopal_disaster but thank you for the correction, I misremembered the acquisition of UCC, whose subsidiary UCIL ran the Bhopal plant.
Monsanto, however, is a global company with 21,000 employees in 404 facilities in 66 countries, not a US one; here is a list of worldwide facilities from their web site: http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/pages/our-locations.aspx
Likewise, Caterpillar does it's manufacturing close to its customers in various countries: http://www.caterpillar.com/company/global-footprint
Case tractors are also manufactured outside the US in many instances: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_IH#Factory_locations ; most of the engines used in the US models are manufactured in Brazil.
General Electric, which manufactures most of the train locomotives used in the US, makes nearly 2/3rds of its money outside the US, and has reduced their US workforce by 1/5 from 2002 to 2011: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?scp=2&sq=ge&st=cse
I'll point out that most steel beams used in large construction are manufactured in China and shipped over for use in the US, since the US no longer has the facilities to manufacture them; for example, most of the recent San Francisco Bay Bridge superstructure is from China: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/sf-bay-bridge-gets-5-300-ton-delivery-from-china.html
The other stuff is transient local infrastructure (why bring in concrete from another country, unless you are talking pre-stressed concrete girders, which, again, tend to get shipped from China).
So tell me again how the US is doing?