Chinese Engineer Gets 15 Yrs. for Spying

A Chinese-born engineer convicted of espionage and other federal charges has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

Dongfan "Greg" Chung was sentenced Monday in Santa Ana after a judge ruled in July that he hoarded sensitive information about the U.S. space shuttle and a booster rocket with the intent to pass it to China. It was the first trial on economic espionage charges in U.S. history.

The government believes the 74-year-old Chung began spying for the Chinese in the late 1970s. Prosecutors say the stress analyst used his 30-year career at Boeing Co. and Rockwell International to collect 300,000 pages of sensitive documents in his home.

Chung has been in custody since being convicted of economic espionage, acting as a foreign agent, conspiracy and lying to federal agents.