Nov 15, 7:00 PM (ET)

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Chinese-American engineer and two relatives who allegedly conspired to steal sensitive information about Navy warships and smuggle it to China were indicted Tuesday on federal charges, authorities said.

The grand jury indictment charges Chi Mak, 65, his wife and brother with acting as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the U.S. Attorney General, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Federal officials said Mak took computer disks from Anaheim defense contractor Power Paragon, where he was lead engineer on a sensitive research project involving propulsion systems for Navy warships.

He and his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, 62, then copied the information to CDs and delivered them to Tai Wang Mak, 56, who was scheduled to fly to Hong Kong on Oct. 28 with his wife, Fuk Heung Li, an FBI affidavit said.

From there, the brother allegedly planned to travel to Guangzhou, China, to meet a contact.

All four were arrested on Oct. 28. Though Li was accused in an FBI affidavit of aiding the others, she was not indicted Tuesday.




http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051116/D8DT7D900.html