Soviets, Cubans Got Advanced U.S. Technology

The Soviet Union has illegally obtained state-of-the-art American equipment that could help it close the gap between its weapons and highly sophisticated U.S. weaponry, and additional highly sensitive equipment has reached Cuba, according to a Commerce Department official and an indictment made public Thursday.

Details of the case, which involves efforts by the Soviet Bloc to obtain equipment crucial to the production of highly sought computer semiconductors and integrated circuits, emerged when a Spanish company that maintains offices in Illinois agreed to pay a criminal fine of $1 million for illegally exporting high-technology equipment between 1979 and 1982.

U.S. Atty. Joseph E. diGenova said in a statement that the violation, by Piher, S.A., of Barcelona, was “one of the most significant in the area of United States high-technology transfer.”

Two Felony Counts

Under an agreement between the Justice Department and Piher, the company pleaded guilty to two felony counts and agreed to pay the fine. In addition, the firm, which has been barred for the last 2 1/2 years from exporting U.S.-made products, will remain barred for an additional nine months.

Equipment valued at $2.4 million was shipped to the Soviet Union and Cuba, but other highly sensitive items did not get through, according to Pentagon and Commerce Department officials familiar with the case.

These officials described the equipment as items at the top of the Soviets’ list of material needed to help them move into the age of highly sophisticated, computer-dependent weapons.

“They have a major need for it in the military,” said one Pentagon official, speaking on the condition he not be identified. “It would probably narrow the gap considerably in weapons systems, lending a qualitative edge to their quantitative edge.”

Officials said that the Soviet Union, which in the past has tried to obtain semiconductors and integrated circuits produced in the West, recently has shifted its emphasis to obtaining the equipment needed to manufacture the circuitry--the miniature wires that carry electronic data in such common gadgets as pocket calculators and digital watches, as well as in the most sophisticated space weapons.

“Such equipment is among the Soviet Bloc’s most highly sought American high-technology goods needed for expanding and improving the bloc’s lagging microprocessor and semiconductor production capability,” Donald Creed, a Commerce Department spokesman, said.

He said Commerce Department documents “confirm that $2.4 million of these goods were illegally re-exported to Cuba and Russia. . . . The most sensitive, state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing equipment went to the Soviet Union,” after first being shipped to Switzerland.

Creed said the material shipped to Cuba, and additional equipment the Cubans were unable to obtain, “would have given them the capability to produce semiconductors and integrated circuits.”

“As far as we know, the (Cuban) plant didn’t get into production,” he said. “They didn’t get everything they needed.” However, the agreement under which Piher accepted the fine declares that Cuba already has a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Pinar del Rio.

According to a grand jury indictment returned here, two senior officers of Piher Semiconductores, S.A., a subsidiary of Piher, reached agreements with Soviet and Cuban trade organizations to obtain the equipment from U.S. manufacturers. The two--Jose Puig Alabern and Francesc Sole I Planas--are believed to be in Spain and beyond the reach of U.S. authorities.

The indictment states that Puig reached an agreement with Imexin, a Cuban foreign trade organization, “to provide and erect a complete integrated circuit manufacturing facility” valued at $19 million.

It said that Puig and Sole, who eventually quit the company, negotiated with Technoproimport, a Soviet foreign trade organization, to sell to the Soviets “two highly sophisticated U.S.-origin integrated circuit manufacturing systems.”

According to U.S. officials and information in the indictment, U.S. officials in Spain--checking at Piher facilities to determine whether the falsely completed export license documents were being adhered to--were shown fake equipment intended to resemble that exported by Piher. Experts examining photographs of the dummy equipment eventually spotted the ruse, they said.