Shipment of restricted technology to India brings 35-month sentence

As more unsettling details emerge about how a netwrok Pakistani scientists and intelligence officers provided the blueprints of miniaturized nuclear warheads to rogue states — and, possibly, to what political scientists call “non-state actors” — the United States also finds itself on the forefront of trying to prevent dangerous technology from falling into the wrong hands. The latest case: Parthasarathy Sudarshan, 47, the owner of an international electronics business, was sentenced in the District of Columbia to thirty-five months in prison for his role in a conspiracy illegally to export controlled electronic components to government entities in India that participate in the development of ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, and fighter jets. On 13 March 2008 Sudarshan, a resident of Simpsonville, South Carolina, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to the felony charge of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Export Administration Regulations; and to violate the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. According to court documents filed by the government, Sudarshan did business as Cirrus Electronics and held himself out to be Cirrus’s CEO, Managing Director, and President and Group Head. Cirrus has offices in Simpsonville, South Carolina, Singapore, and Bangalore, India. Among the recipients of U.S. technology in this case were the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), an enterprise within the Department of Space of the Government of India, and Bharat Dynamics (BDL), an enterprise within the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India.

The U.S. government has determined that VSSC participates in India’s space launch vehicle program and that BDL participates in India’s development and production of ballistic missiles. As such, both VSSC and BDL are on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List and exports of U.S.-origin commodities to these entities are restricted and require prior authorization in the form of a license from the Department of Commerce. Between 2002 and 2006, Sudarshan acquired electrical components with applications in missile guidance and firing systems in the United States for VSSC and BDL. In particular, in the case of at least two U.S. vendors, Sudarshan and others at Cirrus provided the U.S. companies with fraudulent certificates that claimed that the end-users of these electrical components were non-restricted entities in India, when, in fact, the items were for VSSC. There were no export licenses for any of the shipments to VSSC and BDL. To further conceal from the U.S. government that goods were going to entities in India on the Department of Commerce Entity List, Sudarshan would route the products through its Singapore office and then send the packages on to India.

In addition to supplying VSSC and BDL with components, Sudarshan acquired microprocessors for the Tejas, a fighter jet under development in India. The microprocessors were necessary for the navigation and weapons systems of the Tejas. Because the microprocessors are on the U.S. Munitions List, the State Department must license any export of the products. On two occasions in 2004 and 2006, Cirrus caused the shipment of a total of 500 microprocessors to the Aeronautical Development Establishment, an enterprise within the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India responsible for the development of the Tejas. There were no licenses for these shipments.