Red-Handed in the Dark
ITT, the large engineering and electronics company with a long history in the defense business, has been fined a whopping $100 million by the Justice Department for releasing its night-vision technology secrets to China. It is the largest penalty ever under the Arms Export Control Act. A couple interesting things picked up from the WSJ’s story:
- ITT didn’t just share the night-vision technology with China, but also the U.K. and Singapore (and possibly others). So this isn’t necessarily a case of ballooning fines due to China’s involvement in the matter.
- Justice has offered to immediately suspend $50 million from the payment–half of the fine–if ITT develops a more advanced night-vision technology for American soldiers. In this case the US would retain “Government Purpose Rights” to the technology.
All in all, may not be such a bad deal for American taxpayers.
