Man Expected to Admit Selling Nuclear Triggers

An engineer who fled the United States 16 years ago after being charged with illegally exporting 800 nuclear triggers to Israel is expected to plead guilty today in Los Angeles federal court.

Richard Kelly Smyth, extradited from Spain earlier this year, faces a maximum of seven years in prison under a plea agreement negotiated with federal prosecutors.

The 72-year-old Smyth, who suffered a stroke after his arrest, has agreed to plead to one count of violating the U.S. Arms Export Control Act and one count of lying about the contents of an illegal shipment, according to prosecution and defense attorneys.

“This is the kind of case that should be settled,” defense lawyer James Riddet said Thursday. “My client is not in the greatest health. He’d like to put this behind him and end the uncertainty that faces him and his family.”

Riddet said he would ask U.S. Appeals Court Judge Pamela A. Rymer, who is presiding over the case, to sentence Smyth, who is being held without bail, to time already served.

The U.S. attorney’s office will recommend a five-year term, according to Riddet.

Smyth’s plea agreement also calls for him to answer any lingering questions federal investigators may have about his shipments of nuclear triggers, known as krytrons, in the early 1980s to Heli Trading Corp. in Israel.

Heli Trading was owned at the time by Arnon Milchan, an Israeli-born arms trader who became a successful Hollywood film producer. His hits have included “Pretty Woman” and “L.A. Confidential.”

In an interview on television’s “60 Minutes” last year, Milchan denied any involvement in the krytron deal, but said he had allowed the Israeli government to use his company as a conduit for trading with the United States.

Krytrons are glass bulbs about two inches long that have applications ranging from high-speed photocopying to nuclear bomb triggers. Because of that, their sale overseas is strictly controlled.

Israel, which returned most of the krytrons after Smyth’s indictment, contended they were never intended for use in a nuclear weapons program.

Milchan has not been charged with any wrongdoing and a government source said Thursday that the statute of limitations has probably expired on any possible offenses.

Also still shrouded in mystery is how Smyth was able to reach Spain without his U.S. passport. He was forced to surrender the document when he was freed on $100,000 bond following his 1985 indictment on 30 criminal counts.

There were reported sightings of Smyth in Israel shortly after he fled, although Smyth’s wife, Emilie, said recently that she and her husband were in Spain exclusively.

She said they never made any secret of their identities while living in the south of Spain. “Richard was a vice president of the American Club in Malaga and we were registered to vote in local elections,” she said.

Authorities finally caught up Smyth last summer when he filled out an application to open a bank account in Malaga. A check with Interpol turned up the outstanding arrest warrant in the United States.