Chinese National Sentenced for Attempting to Export Maritime Raiding Craft and Engines to China
Ge Songtao, a Chinese national, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in federal prison for conspiring to send false export information through the Commerce Department's Automated Export System and attempting to fraudulently export maritime raiding craft and engines to China, the Department of Justice said in a July 16 news release. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida ordered Ge to pay $114,834.27, the amount that he caused to be wired to a U.S. manufacturer to buy the raiding craft and engines.
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Ge was the chairman of Shanghai Breeze Technology Co. when, during his tenure, he expressed interest in acquiring U.S.-made combat rubber raiding craft with engines that could use gasoline, diesel fuel or jet fuel, DOJ said. The U.S. military uses this specific vessel and multi-fuel engines, and no such comparable product was made in China. Ge attempted to secure the craft via one of his U.S.-based employees, co-defendant Yang Yang, who attempted to buy seven craft with these engines, DOJ said.
Yang falsely told the manufacturer that the customer was a company based in Hong Kong rather than Shanghai, believing that the producer would be more likely to sell to a Hong Kong-based entity. This caused the entry of false information in Commerce's AES, a breach of federal law. Ge arranged for the wire transfers to a separate Hong Kong-based company, Belt Consulting Co. Ltd., which wired the $114,000 to the U.S. manufacturer. Ge then also unsuccessfully tried to send an employee to Hong Kong to receive the vessels and engines and reroute them to mainland China. He pleaded guilty Nov. 2, 2020 (see 2011030020).