California Man Charged With Illegally Exporting Software to Sanctioned Beijing University

Jonathan Yet Wing Soong, former employee at Universities Space Research Association, was charged with violating export control laws by shipping sensitive aeronautics software to a university in Beijing, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced. Soong, of San Jose, is charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and and one count of smuggling, which, respectively, carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, and 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges that during Soong's employment as a USRA program administrator from 2016 to 2020, he exported software to Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics -- an entity on the Entity List. Soong did so without an export license, allegedly knowing that such a license was needed to properly export this software, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The Beijing university was added to the Entity List for its involvement in China's military rocket systems and unmanned air vehicle systems, and the exported software is used for the development of unmanned aircraft.

The U.S. alleges that Soong used an intermediary to carry out the transfer. Allegedly, Soong made arrangements to sell the software package to an intermediary called Beijing Rainbow Technical Development once he learned that a license was needed to send the software package to the listed university.