2 S'poreans jailed for unlawful export of military antennae

[pianist]

SINGAPORE: Two Singaporean men were sentenced to jail by a United States federal court in Washington, District of Columbia on Friday for the unlawful export of military antennae from the US to Singapore and Hong Kong.


44-year-old Lim Kow Seng was handed a 37-month prison sentence. 46-year-old Hia Soo Gan Benson was given a 34-month jail sentence.


The two men had pleaded guilty on 26 June this year to conspiracy to defraud the US by dishonest means.


They were arrested in Singapore in October 2011 and extradited to the US, where they have been detained since.


According to court documents, Lim and Hia conspired to defraud the US by causing a total of 55 cavity-backed spiral antennae and biconical antennae to be illegally exported from a Massachusetts company to Singapore and Hong Kong without the required State Department licence.


These military antennae are controlled for export as US munitions and are used in airborne and shipboard environments.


Lim and Hia conspired to undervalue the antennae to circumvent US regulations on the filing of shipper's export declarations to the US government.


Lim and Hia also allegedly used false names and front companies to obtain the antennae illegally from the US.


Corezing International, a company based in Singapore, was also charged in Columbia in connection with the export of these military antennae to Singapore and Hong Kong.


Corezing and its principals have also been charged in connection with the export of 6,000 radio frequency modules from the US to Iran via Singapore.


Some of these modules were later found in improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

[corydorus]

Is disappointing to know "WE" played a part in improvised devices that has been hampering our ally. The crime is more than export. They played a significant part in injuries and deaths of human lives. Their sentences imo are too light.

[sgd]

Is disappointing to know "WE" played a part in improvised devices that has been hampering our ally. The crime is more than export. They played a significant part in injuries and deaths of human lives. Their sentences imo are too light.

For your infos, Singapore is one of the known arms dealer in the world and possible the biggest one in this region. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) notes that between 2008 - 2012 the top 5 biggest arms importers in the world india, china, pakistan, south korea, singapore

We have been involve in supplying myanmmar, iran & iraq wars in the 80's, bosnia conflict in the 90's, our small arms weapons have shown up in armies of various south america countries, recently british forces have purchases our warthogs vehicles as well how's that for track record still think we are that squeaky clean?

I think is just the tip of the iceberg that these 2 guys that were caught, maybe they were scapegoats and mis-direction for a much bigger operation somwhere.

[CY09]

Remember reading somewhere that Singapore is one of the largest global producer of anti-personnel landmines. This has led to New Zealand's Sovereign Wealth fund not investing in certain Singapore firms as the former view the actions of our State as something not aligned to Human Rights.

[Dividend Warrior]

Remember reading somewhere that Singapore is one of the largest global producer of anti-personnel landmines. This has led to New Zealand's Sovereign Wealth fund not investing in certain Singapore firms as the former view the actions of our State as something not aligned to Human Rights.

Is it ST Engineering?

[sgd]

Top 100 arms producers in the world.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog...-producers

if we are the world's top 5 importer that means we are quite a big exporter as well, I read somewhere a lot of the sales exports are used to subsidize the imports. In recent years we been known to build high quality equipment and many countries have shown interest I can only guess is either cheaper or maybe we accept as payment forex currencies but definitely less regulation compares to US ie buying anything req to go thru congressional approval and becomes public information the whole world already knows what you are getting.

And yes we are not a signatory to the mine ban treaty but for obvious reasons that you can guess we are small country such things have a defensive nature can be used to slow the advance of approaching aggressor.

(vested in STEngr)

[yeokiwi]

if we are the world's top 5 importer that means we are quite a big exporter as well

In recent years, SG bought

24 F15SG + numerous addons
Five formidable class frigates + numerous addons
Two Västergötland class submarines + numerous addons
Close to 100 Leopard tanks + numerous addons
Four G550 AEW
and... trainers, simulators, lots of tonners, rovers, small arms, ammo topup etc..

I am not sure how many countries in this world can afford to pay for the above items to beat Singapore out of the top ten arm importer list.

But.. import does not necessary imply equal amount of export.

[NTL]

From my understanding, any purchase of hardware that could be use need to be declared. ST Eng very unlikely will falsely declared to US as it may hurt the relation between he 2 countries, and end up may not be able to buy any such ardware from them again...

[sgd]

I don't think we are re-exporting the imports, more likely our exports are things that we make like ultimax100 saw, sr88, automatic grenade launchers, we also sell ammo. But I read from somewhere any US made equipment that any country owns which is more than 20yo is allowed to be re-exported.

In recent years we have sold bigger ticket items like landing ships to thailand, warthogs (broncos) to UK, I remember seeing a magazine photo of indonesia using something looking like FH2000 howitzer. Our old decom coastal patrol vessels - sold to bangladesh

rumor going around the filipinos are interested in buying our amx13sm1 light tanks if is true it means a replacement has to happen before that.