US firm, Indian admit banned US arms, nuke tech export to India
Foreign Desk Report

WASHINGTON—The Indian head of an international electronics business has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to illegally export controlled microprocessors and electronic components to government entities in India that participate in the development of ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, and fighter jets.
Meanwhile, according to The Washington Post report on the guilty plea the businessman made, an employee with the Indian Embassy in Washington and Indian government agencies conspired with an international electronics executive to obtain secret weapons technology from U.S. companies.
The plea by Parthasarathy Sudarshan, 47, before a federal judge in Washington suggests the Indian government violated a pledge made in 2004 that it would not try to bypass U.S. export-control laws and regulations that were imposed after India tested a nuclear weapon in 1998.
The US has invested significant effort in seeking to conclude a deal that would give India access to U.S. civilian nuclear technology. The deal, which has stalled because of political difficulties in India, requires final approval from Congress, and some lawmakers expressed outrage after an indictment of Sudarshan was unsealed last year, the Post said, adding the Indian Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
In a separate case announced Thursday, a Minnesota company, MTS Systems Corp., pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years’ probation and fined $400,000 for repeatedly falsifying documents so it could illegally export equipment for use in India’s nuclear program.
According to court documents, Sudarshan, as chief executive of Cirrus Electronics, sought to evade the export laws by arranging for critical parts needed for missiles, space launch vehicles and fighter jets to be shipped to Singapore, which did not require a license from the Commerce Department. The parts then were secretly rerouted to India.
The documents said that Sudarshan worked closely with an Indian Embassy employee identified only as “co-conspirator A.” At one point, according to court documents, Sudarshan advised the official that a shipment of microprocessors for combat aircraft “is leaving for Singapore, as we do not want it to be held up at U.S. customs for want of business registration and export code numbers, etc” the Post reported.
Sudarshan, of Simpsonville, S.C., agreed to cooperate with the investigation as part of his guilty plea and faces a maximum five-year prison term for conspiring to violate two federal laws. According to court documents filed by the government, Sudarshan did business as Cirrus Electronics (“Cirrus”) and held himself out to be Cirrus’ 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, Ltd. (BDL), an enterprise within the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, the Justice Department said.
“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,” it added.
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.