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US
scientist, wife held for selling N-weapon detail
Saturday, September 18, 2010 02:29:29 PM,
EFE
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Washington:
A US scientist ans his wife have been arrested for passing on
secret information to a man posing as Venezuelan spy to help that
country develop a nuclear weapon, the US justice department has
said.
"The indictment does not allege that the government of Venezuela
or anyone acting on its behalf sought or was passed any classified
information, nor does it charge any Venezuelan government
officials or anyone acting on their behalf with wrongdoing," the
department said in a statement Friday.
Argentine-born physicist Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 75, and wife
Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, are facing a total of 22 charges
and, if convicted, could be sentenced to life in prison.
Both the defendants are US citizens who once worked at Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico, where they had access to
classified information.
According to the complaint, Mascheroni had a series of
conversations in March 2008 with an FBI agent posing as a
Venezuelan official, during which he spoke of his plan to develop
nuclear arms for the Andean nation.
In the course of their talks, the scientist said that he could
help Venezuela develop a nuclear bomb in a period of 10 years.
Mascheroni also handed over a disk with a coded 132-page document
on it containing "restricted data" pertaining to nuclear weapons,
and in exchange received an initial payment of $20,000, the
justice department said.
After a number of contacts with the undercover agent over more
than a year, the FBI questioned Mascheroni and his wife about the
classified information they had handed over, and both answered
with statements that were untrue.
The two were arrested Friday morning by FBI agents and had their
first hearing at a US federal court in Albuquerque.
"The conduct alleged in this indictment is serious and should
serve as a warning to anyone who would consider compromising our
nation's nuclear secrets for profit," Assistant Attorney General
for National Security David Kris said.
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