US nuclear scientist jailed for espionage

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US nuclear scientist jailed for espionage

Scientist who offered build 40 nuclear weapons for Venezuela capable of targeting New York alleges FBI entrapment in federal court

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 29 January, 2015, 10:06pm
UPDATED : Friday, 30 January, 2015, 1:15am

Associated Press in New Mexico

US nuclear scientist jailed for espionage

A disgruntled, former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist promised to build 40 nuclear weapons for Venezuela in 10 years and design a bomb targeted for New York in exchange for "money and power," according to secret FBI recordings.

In the recordings, released on Wednesday, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni tells an agent posing as a Venezuelan official the bombs would prevent the United States from invading the oil-rich nation and brags the passing of secrets would make him wealthy.

Mascheroni said his New York bomb wouldn't kill anyone but would disable the city's electrical system and help Venezuela become a nuclear superpower.

But he suggested that once Venezuela obtained a bomb, the country should explode it "to let the world know what we've got," according to the recordings.

The recordings were played on Wednesday in US District Court in Albuquerque before a federal judge sentenced Mascheroni, 79, to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release as part of a plea agreement.

Mascheroni and his wife, Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, pleaded guilty in 2013 to offering to help develop a nuclear weapon for Venezuela through dealings with an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of the South American country. The US government did not allege Venezuela sought US secrets.

His wife received a year and a day for conspiring with her husband to sell nuclear secrets.

The US government did not allege Venezuela sought to acquire US secrets.

Despite the evidence and the plea agreement, federal prosecutor Fred Federici said Pedro Mascheroni refused to admit he did anything wrong and has tried to argue he was the victim of the federal government trying to trap him after being critical of US nuclear policy.

"He was no true hero," Federici said. "He was simply a man who betrayed his country."

Speaking to a judge, Mascheroni was defiant and said if his case had gone to trial, a federal jury would have acquitted him. He said the information he passed onto the agent was already available online, or simply was made up.

"I was basically selling used cars," Mascheroni said during a long tirade in federal court that had to be interrupted by US District Judge William P Johnson. "What I was selling was completely science fiction."

Before his indictment, Mascheroni was under investigation for about a year. The FBI had seized computers, letters, photographs, books and cellphones from the couple's Los Alamos home.

In an interview , Mascheroni said he believed the US was wrongly targeting him as a spy and denied the accusations.

The scientist said that he approached Venezuela after the United States rejected his theories that a hydrogen-fluoride laser had the capacity to produce nuclear energy.

Mascheroni worked in the nuclear weapons design division at the Los Alamos lab from 1979 until he was laid off in 1988. His wife, a technical writer, worked there between 1981 and 2010.

"The public trusts that the government will do all it can to safeguard 'Restricted Data' from being unlawfully transmitted to foreign nations not entitled to receive it," said assistant attorney general for national security John Carlin.

"We simply cannot allow people to violate their pledge to protect the classified nuclear weapons data with which they are entrusted.

"Today's sentencing should leave no doubt that counterespionage investigations remain one of our most powerful tools to protect our national security."

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse