7 September 2011
FBI Mossad Sting Bags Big-Headed Egghead
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/September/11-nsd-1142.html
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Noted Scientist Pleads Guilty to Attempted Espionage
Scientist Arrested in 2009 Following Undercover Operation
WASHINGTON - Stewart David Nozette, a scientist who once worked for the
Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration and the White Houses National Space Council,
pleaded guilty today to attempted espionage for providing classified information
to a person he believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer.
The guilty plea, which took place this morning in the U.S. District Court
for the District of Columbia, was announced by Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney
General for National Security; Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the
District of Columbia; and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge
of the FBIs Washington Field Office.
Nozette, 54, of Chevy Chase, Md., pleaded guilty to one count of attempted
espionage. Senior Judge Paul L. Friedman, who presided at the plea hearing,
scheduled a status hearing for Nov. 15, 2011. No sentencing date was set.
The plea agreement, which is subject to the judges approval, calls
for an agreed-upon prison term of 13 years.
Nozette has been in custody since his arrest on Oct. 19, 2009. FBI agents
arrested him following an undercover operation in which he provided classified
materials on three occasions, including one occasion that forms the basis
for todays guilty plea. He was subsequently indicted by a federal grand
jury. The indictment does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone
acting on its behalf committed any offense under U.S. laws in this case.
Stewart Nozette betrayed Americas trust by attempting to sell
some of the nations most closely-guarded secrets for profit. Today,
he is being held accountable for his actions. As this case demonstrates,
we remain vigilant in protecting Americas secrets and in bringing to
justice those who compromise them, said Assistant Attorney General
Monaco.
Stewart Nozette was once a trusted scientist who maintained high-level
government security clearances and was frequently granted access to classified
information relating to our national defense. Today he is a disgraced criminal
who was caught red-handed attempting to trade American secrets for personal
profit. He will now have the next 13 years behind bars to contemplate his
betrayal, said U.S. Attorney Machen. The FBI and its partners
deserve tremendous credit for their outstanding work on this case. This
investigation and prosecution demonstrate our commitment to identifying and
punishing those who would put our national security at risk.
Preventing the loss or compromise of high-technology and vital national
security information is a top priority of the FBI, said Assistant Director
in Charge McJunkin. This case is a prime example of what happens when
a person decides to sell our nations most valuable secrets for individual
gain.
Background
Nozette received a Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1983. He has worked in various capacities on behalf of the
U.S. government in the development of state-of-the-art programs in defense
and space. For example, Nozette worked at the White House on the National
Space Council, Executive Office of the President, from approximately 1989
through 1990. He also worked as a physicist for the U.S. Department of
Energys Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from approximately 1990
to 1999, where he designed highly advanced technology.
Among other things, Nozette assisted in the development of the Clementine
bi-static radar experiment which purportedly discovered water ice on the
south pole of the moon. A version of the Clementine satellite currently hangs
on display at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C., and was later hailed as the vanguard of the new
faster, cheaper, better revolution in space exploration.
Nozette was also the president, treasurer and director of the Alliance for
Competitive Technology (ACT), a non-profit organization that he organized
in March 1990. Between January 2000 and February 2006, Nozette, through his
company, ACT, entered into agreements with several government agencies to
develop highly advanced technology. Nozette performed some of this research
and development at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.,
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Va., and the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md.
According to a factual proffer in support of the guilty plea, from 1989 through
2006, Nozette held security clearances as high as TOP SECRET and had regular,
frequent access to classified information and documents related to the national
defense of the United States. The factual proffer also provides details about
the undercover operation that led to Nozettes arrest.
The Investigation
According to the factual proffer, on Feb. 16, 2007, law enforcement agents
executed a search warrant at Nozettes home in Maryland as part of a
fraud investigation and found classified documents. Further investigation
into the classified documents revealed that in 2002, Nozette sent an e-mail
threatening to take a classified program he was working on, to [foreign
country] or Israel and do it there selling internationally... As a
result of this and other information giving rise to suspicion of espionage,
the FBI decided to conduct an undercover operation.
On Sept. 3, 2009, Nozette was contacted via telephone by an individual purporting
to be an Israeli intelligence officer from the Mossad, but who was, in fact,
an undercover employee of the FBI. During that call, the defendant agreed
to meet with the undercover employee that day on Connecticut Avenue N.W.,
in front of the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C.
Later that day, Nozette met with the undercover employee and had lunch in
the restaurant of the Mayflower Hotel. After the undercover employee made
it clear that he was a Mossad agent, Nozette stated, Good.
Happy to be of assistance.
After lunch in the hotel restaurant, Nozette and the undercover employee
retired to a hotel suite to continue their discussion. During the conversation,
the defendant informed the undercover employee that he had clearances all
the way to Top Secret SCI, I had nuclear
, that anything
that the U.S. has done in space I've seen, and that he would provide
classified information for money and a foreign passport to a country without
extradition to the United States.
The defendant and the undercover employee met again on Sept. 4, 2009, at
the Mayflower Hotel. During this encounter, Nozette assured the undercover
employee that, although he no longer had legal access to any classified
information at a U.S. government facility, he could, nonetheless, recall
the classified information to which he had been granted access. The defendant
said, Its in my head, and pointed to his head.
Undercover Operation Continues
On Sept. 10, 2009, FBI agents left a letter in the prearranged dead
drop facility for the defendant. In the letter, the FBI asked Nozette
to answer a list of questions concerning classified U.S. satellite information.
FBI agents also provided signature cards, in the defendants true name
and an alias, for Nozette to sign and asked the defendant to provide four
passport sized photographs for the Israeli passport the defendant requested.
The FBI agents also left $2,000 cash for the defendant in the dead
drop facility, which Nozette retrieved the same day, along with the
questions and signature cards.
On Sept. 16, 2009, Nozette left a manila envelope in the dead drop
facility in the District of Columbia. One of the answers provided
by the defendant contained information classified as SECRET/SCI which related
to the national defense, in that it directly concerned classified aspects
and mission capabilities of a prototype overhead collection system and which
disclosure would negate the ability to support military and intelligence
operations. In addition to disclosing SECRET/SCI information, Nozette offered
to reveal additional classified information that directly concerned nuclear
weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, and other major weapons systems.
On Sept. 17, 2009, FBI agents left a second communication in the dead
drop facility for the defendant. In the letter, the FBI asked Nozette
to answer another list of questions concerning classified U.S. satellite
information. Nozette retrieved the questions from the dead drop
facility later that same day.
On Oct. 1, 2009, Nozette left a manila envelope in the dead drop
facility in the District of Columbia. The FBI also left a cash payment of
$9,000 in the dead drop facility. Later that day, the FBI agents
retrieved the sealed manila envelope left by the defendant. Inside the envelope,
FBI agents discovered the encrypted thumb drive that was provided to Nozette
on Sept. 17, 2009, which included another set of answers from
the defendant. The answers contained information classified as
TOP SECRET/SCI and other information classified as SECRET/SCI. This classified
information related to the national defense, in that it directly concerned
satellites, early warning systems, means of defense or retaliation against
large-scale attack, communications intelligence information, and major elements
of defense strategy. (This information is what formed the basis for the charge
in todays guilty plea.)
On Oct. 5, 2009, Nozette left a manila envelope in the dead drop
facility in the District of Columbia. Later that day, the FBI agents retrieved
the sealed manila envelope left by the defendant. Inside the envelope, FBI
agents discovered the encrypted thumb drive that was provided to Nozette
on Oct. 1, 2009, which included another set of answers from the
defendant. The answers contained information classified as TOP
SECRET/SAR. This classified information related to the national defense,
in that it directly concerned capabilities of a U.S. military weapon system
research and development effort.
Nozette and the undercover employee met again on Oct. 19, 2009, at the Mayflower
Hotel. During that meeting, the following exchanges took place:
NOZETTE: So, uh, I gave you even in this first run, some of the most
classified information that there is. . . . Ive sort of crossed the
Rubicon. . . . Now the, uh, so I think when I said like fifty K, I think
that was probably too low. . . .The cost to the U.S. Government was two hundred
million. . . . to develop it all. Uh, and then thats not including
the launching of it. . .Uh, integrating the satellites. . . . So if you say
okay that probably brings it to almost a billion dollars. . . So I tell ya
at least two hundred million so I would say, you know, theoretically I should
charge you certainly, you know, at most a one percent.
Nozette was arrested soon after he made these statements. He was subsequently
indicted on four charges of attempted espionage. Under the plea agreement,
Nozette pleaded guilty to the third count of the indictment, arising out
of his passing of TOP SECRET/SCI information on Oct. 1, 2009.
At the time of his arrest, Nozette was awaiting sentencing in another federal
case. On Jan. 30, 2009, he pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia to charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government
with respect to false claims and tax evasion in an amount up to $399,999.
In that case, Nozette agreed to pay restitution of $265,205 to the U.S.
government. Nozette is awaiting sentencing in the case. Under terms of
todays plea, the sentence in the fraud case is to run concurrently
with the sentence for attempted espionage.
This investigation was conducted by the FBIs Washington Field Office,
with assistance from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Audit
Service, National Reconnaissance Office, Air Force Office of Special
Investigations, Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory, Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Defense Contract
Audit Agency, U.S. Army 902nd Military Intelligence Group, National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Counterintelligence, NASA Office
of Inspector General, Department of Energy , Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Criminal Investigation Division, IRS Tax Exempt & Government Entities
group, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Postal Inspection Service,
as well as other partners in the U.S. intelligence community.
The prosecution is being handled by Trial Attorneys Deborah A. Curtis and
Heather M. Schmidt, from the Counterespionage Section of the Justice
Departments National Security Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney
Anthony Asuncion, from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of
Columbia.
11-1142
National Security Division
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