Shafur Moinian, a former US Army helicopter pilot turned civilian contractor, 67, of San Diego, was sentenced in federal court to 20 months in prison for acting as an agent of the Chinese government. According to the release, he received thousands of dollars from Chinese government officials to provide information related to aviation from his defense employers.
According to court documents, Moinian served in the US military in the United States, Germany and South Korea from 1977 to 2000. After his service, he worked for various US defense contractors – including in San Diego – as well as the Department of Defense. He has worked on projects involving classified information.
According to his plea agreement, while Moinian was working for the defense contractor on various aviation projects used by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, he was approached by a man in China who claimed to work for a technical recruiting firm. This man offered Moinian the opportunity to consult for China’s aerospace industry.
In March 2017, Moinian traveled to Hong Kong where he met with the alleged recruiter and agreed to provide information and materials related to several types of aircraft designed and/or manufactured in the United States in exchange for money.
Moignan received approximately $7,000-$10,000 during that meeting. According to his plea agreement, at this meeting and all subsequent meetings, Moinian knew that these people were employed or directed by the Chinese government. Upon returning to the United States, he began collecting aviation-related materials, which included transferring material from the employer’s network to a mobile device.
In September 2017, Moinyan traveled overseas and, during a layover at Shanghai airport, met with Chinese government officials and provided materials, including proprietary information from his employer. Moinyan then arranged to receive payment for this information through his stepdaughter’s South Korean bank account. Moinyan He told his stepdaughter that these funds were payment for his consulting work abroad and ordered her to transfer the funds to him in several transactions.
At the end of March 2018, Moinian traveled to Bali and met with the same people again. Later that year, he began working for another contractor. During that time period, the same people in China transferred thousands of dollars to the South Korean bank account of Moinian’s stepdaughter, who then transferred the funds to Moinian in several transactions.
In August 2019, Moinian traveled to Hong Kong again and met with the same people where he was again paid approximately $22,000 in cash for his services. Moignan and his wife smuggled that money back to the United States.
According to his plea agreement, Moinian also admitted that he lied on government background checks in July 2017 and March 2020, when he falsely stated that he had no close or ongoing relationships with foreign nationals and that no foreign national had offered him a job.