More than two years after the federal government charged Quadrant Magnetics related to sharing product design information with affiliate contacts in China, a mistrial has been declared at the U.S. District Court in Louisville, Kentucky in the government’s case against the company. According to a report in the Louisville Courier Journal on March 19, it’s the latest twist in the high-profile case centered around confidential U.S. military data allegedly sent to China by company officials. The case is now in limbo, prosecutors could retry it, with a jury trial tentatively set to begin in late May.
Earlier, in February, two of the company’s former executives at its Louisville facility — ex-president Phil Pascoe and Scott Tubbs, ex-vice president of sales and marketing — pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. A third, former accounting manager Monica Pascoe, was given pretrial diversion, with charges to be dismissed if no issues occur in the next six months. Tubbs and Phil Pascoe have not yet been sentenced, with a hearing currently scheduled for June, and could move to withdraw their guilty pleas.
The judge made the decision at a court hearing March 17, citing concerns prosecutors had failed to disclose all material relevant to Quadrant’s defense during the discovery process, a violation of the “Brady rule,” and had not provided all prior recorded statements of witnesses ahead of the trial, which began on March 11, according to the Courier Journal report.
Another source, JD Supra, an information service that specializes in legal issues, has provided additional coverage of the case along with insight into heightened federal scrutiny of unauthorized technology transfers to foreign entities in sectors deemed critical to national security. The charges in this case alleged unlawful transmission of ITAR-controlled technical data to an affiliate in China, it reported. “As federal authorities continue to intensify export control enforcement efforts, the criminal case against Pascoe and Tubbs serves as a cautionary tale for corporate executives operating in highly regulated industries,” the report noted.
The indictment was reported in an earlier article in Magnetics Magazine. For more info, see www.courier-journal.com and www.jdsupra.com.
