LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A Culver City man is due in a downtown courtroom July 27 to face charges alleging he violated the Arms Export Control Act by attempting to sell sensitive satellite information to a person he believed to be a Russian spy. Gregory Allen Justice, 49, was working for a defense contractor as an engineer on military and commercial satellites when he allegedly committed the crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was arrested by FBI special agents Thursday and ordered detained pending trial.
According to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Justice stole proprietary trade secret materials from his employer and provided them to a person whom he believed to be an agent of the Russian government, but who was in fact an FBI undercover agent. In addition to their proprietary nature, the documents contained technical data covered by the U.S. Munitions List and therefore controlled for export from the United States under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, according to the document filed July 1 in Los Angeles federal court.
In exchange for providing those materials, Justice allegedly sought and received cash payments. John P. Carlin, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, alleged Justice “placed his own interests of greed over our national security by providing information on sensitive U.S. technologies to a person whom he believed was a foreign agent.” “In the wrong hands, this information could be used to harm the United States and its allies,” Carlin said. If convicted, Justice faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison for the economic espionage charge and up to 20 years for violating the Arms Export Control Act.