Costa Mesa : Man Is First Indicted on Anti-Apartheid Act

A Costa Mesa man accused of shipping technical manuals for jet fighter engines to South Africa became the first person indicted under the Anti-Apartheid Act, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury against George MacArthur Posey Wednesday is the first to charge a violation of the act, which prohibits trade in munitions with South Africa, U.S. Atty. Robert Bonner said in Los Angeles.

The indictment accused Posey, 38, managing partner of Newport Aeronautical Sales in Costa Mesa, of receiving orders from various people to ship items from the U.S. Munitions List to Argentina so that some of the materials could be forwarded to South Africa.

Prosecutors said Capt. Nicolaas Vorster, a naval attache in the South African Embassy in Washington, was one of those who negotiated for the purchase and export of the technical data. Vorster was not indicted.

The indictment also charges Posey with violating the Arms Export Control Act and conspiring with Edward Bush--who was indicted on similar charges last month--to ship technical data for A-4 and F-16 jet fighter engines to South Africa without required State Department licenses.

Posey received an order from Vorster on Sept. 11 for technical repair and maintenance manuals for generators on the General Electric J-79 jet engine used on the A-4 and F-16, plus other manuals related to the C-130 military cargo plane, according to the indictment, and also received orders from Argentina for technical manuals on space and missile systems.

The indictment said Posey contacted manufacturers and suppliers of the manuals and agreed to pay for Bush to travel to Argentina and then on to South Africa. The two men then met at Newport Aeronautical on Feb. 5, packaged the manuals and put them in the trunk of Bush’s car, the indictment says.

Two days later, Bush checked in for a flight to Argentina, carrying three white boxes and a blue suitcase containing the restricted manuals at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was arrested by Customs agents.