U.S. Accuses Berkeley Official, Lawyer of Violating Export Law

A Berkeley city councilman and an attorney were named Tuesday in a 17-count federal indictment charging them with violating federal export laws by shipping microcomputers to China through Hong Kong.

The indictment accused Councilman Frederic D. Weekes, 62, and San Francisco attorney Bernardus J. Smit, 60, both former corporate officers of Berkeley-based Dual Systems Control Corp., of making false statements and actively promoting the sale of microcomputers to China without proper Department of Commerce licenses.

The charged violations occurred in 1983 and 1984, according to the indictment.

The indictment described an operation in which Smit traveled regularly to Hong Kong, allegedly exporting computers to Hillwood Computer Systems Ltd. in Hong Kong. From there, the computers were destined for another firm in China. The indictment does not make clear whether any computers actually made it to China.

At times, the indictment said, Smit and Weekes had unwitting Dual employees carry unlicensed computers as luggage on flights to the Far East. The indictment also alleges that Smit in December, 1984, ordered an employee to accept a single order for 70 microcomputers from a user in China.

On other occasions, the indictment charges, computers were shipped under incorrect export license numbers.

The computers involved were the Dual Systems Models 83/20 and 83/80, “fairly general purpose, not very expensive systems,” according to Bruce MacKay, the current president of Dual Systems Control Corp. Both models are now considered obsolete and are no longer produced, MacKay said.

MacKay said that Smit resigned his position as president and chief executive officer in December, 1986.

Weekes resigned his position as executive vice president in September, 1986, just two months before his election to the Berkeley City Council.

Weekes, a member of the Berkeley Democratic Club, is part of what is considered by Berkeley standards to be a conservative or moderate minority on the council. The left-leaning Berkeley Citizens Action Coalition currently holds a majority.

MacKay said that no one working for Dual Systems today was with the company when the alleged export violations are said to have taken place. He refused to speculate on what might have motivated such violations. “We don’t know,” he said.

Weekes’ attorney, William B. Turner, said “there’s nothing legally or morally wrong with selling computers in the Far East.” The charges, Turner said, consisted entirely of “extremely technical licensing violations.”