Aviation
Military /
USA
Suspicions of espionage
Two men accused of illegal sale of US Air Force data
Mathew Schwartz/Unsplash
Gabriela Ramos
5/15/2021
Last Wednesday, May 12, two men were arrested, accused of illegally obtaining and selling confidential technical data from the United States Air Force, according to a Justice Department statement.
Between January 2015 and July 2020, at least 1,875 data sets known as technical orders were reportedly sold by Sarfraz Yousuf, 43, to Marc Chavez, 53.
Chavez reportedly paid at least $ 132,280 for the information and, according to the United States government, he resold the manuals at a profit.
Neither Chavez's customers, nor the aircraft and other systems involved were disclosed.
According to the Department of Justice, "the technical orders in question in this case are documents covering the installation, operation, maintenance and handling of Air Force equipment and materials".
The Department added that the data sold by Chavez are "of such military importance that the release (...) could jeopardize an important military operational or technological advantage in the United States."
The manual referred to the Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. It is an important maintenance deposit, receiving F-35, F-22, F-16, A-10, C-130, T-38, in addition to the Minuteman III missile, among others.
Among the information sold, there are instructions for handling the gyroscope system, which is the tool responsible for stabilizing aircraft navigation systems.
It is not known which aircraft the data sold belongs to, nor whether the Air Force is taking steps to increase the protection of its systems.
The sale was discovered when federal investigators investigated the illegal sale of government technical drawings by a Navy official. According to the Department of Justice, NASC (Newport Aeronautical Sales Corp.), the company that purchased the designs, resold them to unidentified domestic and foreign customers.
According to the Justice Department, “the police found that NASC also illegally obtained technical orders from the US Air Force from users of an email account used by Yousuf, an employee of Summit Aerospace Inc., an aircraft maintenance company based in Miami ”.
Yousuf was responsible for data security at Summit Aerospace, managing whoever received military technical information. He used the pseudonym 'Mandy' to negotiate the data and, according to court documents, he communicated to NASC officials that he would be able to gain access to data from the USAF systems. Yousuf obtained about 10,870 technical orders.
In an e-mail cited in the federal statement, ‘Mandy’ would have written: “I have direct access to the Air Force Portal, where I receive the latest T.O.'s absolute reviews. I GUARANTEE you the last review sent electronically at the time of the request, since it is not restricted! ”
Special Agent Marc Nelson stated in his testimony: “Based on my review of the Air Force records and my investigation in this case, I believe that Sarfraz Yousuf used his access to the [Advanced Technical Information Management System] to access Air Force TOs , converted the TOs for its own use and then sold the TOs to various entities, including NASC and LTC Products ”.
Chavez allegedly bought information from the Air Force from Yousuf on behalf of LTC Products, a company run by Chavez that sells aerospace technical data. According to him, there is an "extensive library of repair manuals for commercial, private and military components that cover popular aircraft such as the Boeing, Douglas, Airbus and Cessna models, to name a few".
In the statement, Nelson added that Chavez would have exchanged Air Force data with Army maintenance data with an LTC client.
Yousuf and Chavez, if convicted, face up to 10 years in prison for theft of government property.
Yousuf was released on $ 250,000 bail after appearing at the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale. Chavez, who appeared before the federal court in Santa Ana, was also bailed out, in the amount of $ 20,000.
Pietro Jeng/Unsplash
Hyperlinks:
...
...
...
Gabriela Ramos
Gabriela is the latest addition to the editorial team of our website, having provided us with her solid background in editing, publishing and photography, and her interest and training in aviation history and historiography. His good taste and common sense and great cleverness and sagacity in the selection of themes and materials greatly enriched our vocabulary and narrative style. Gabriela brought unusual predicates and came to stay, helping to point the way of success of our portal.
   
|