Bo Jiang, a contract researcher working on "source code for high technology imaging" at NASA's Langley Research Center, was arrested under a charge of lying to federal officer on March 16, 2013 at Dulles International Airport on his planned one-way journey to return to China. He was accused of espionage by Representative Frank Wolf, and was investigated for possible violations of the Arms Export Control Act.[1] An affidavit claimed that on a prior occasion, Jiang had taken a NASA laptop containing sensitive information to China.[2]
Jiang was released on May 2, 2013, after a plea agreement in which he admitted guilt to a single charge of misuse of Federal office equipment to download copyrighted movies, television shows and pornography.
On March 28, 2013, a U.S. Judge ordered Jiang released after a federal prosecutor acknowledged there was no evidence that he possessed any sensitive, secret or classified material.[3] Jiang's lawyer said congressman Wolf was making his client a "scapegoat" and the subject of witch hunt.[4]
On May 2, 2013, prosecutors dropped a felony charge of lying to federal investigators.[5] [6] Jiang pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of misusing government office equipment and was sentenced to time served - about seven weeks. In his plea agreement, Jiang acknowledged violating a NASA regulation governing use of government office equipment by downloading copyrighted movies, television shows and sexually explicit images on the NASA-owned laptop.
Two Langley Research Center supervisors were indicted for allowing Jiang access to files on the NASA computer system.[7] However no evidence of espionage was ever presented. One of the NASA supervisors were fined $250 and sentenced to six months probation; the second was released with no penalty.