Thousand Oaks Arms Exporter Is Sentenced

A Chinese businessman who has lived in the U.S. for 14 years was sentenced to prison Monday for his part in an effort to export missile and fighter-jet parts to China.

Jinghua Zhuang, 34, a resident of Thousand Oaks, was given a 2 1/2-year prison term and ordered to pay a $6,000 fine by U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty in June to charges of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Zhuang’s wife, 33-year-old Xiuwen Liang, also admitted her guilt. She is to be sentenced in March.

The two were accused of attempting to export parts for the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet and TOW antitank missiles to the Chinese city of Shengyang.

Zhuang’s attorney, Richard M. Steingard, said his client’s crime was “an aberration.”

Zhuang received an MBA from California Lutheran University in 1992, Steingard said. He quickly rose through the corporate ranks and became an international sales manager at the Harris Corp., a Fortune 500 company specializing in communications equipment.

Steingard asked the judge to give Zhuang a one-year sentence. However, Wilson went along with probation officials’ recommendation of 2 1/2 years.

“We asked that the judge place this in the perspective of the rest of his life, which is incredibly successful,” Steingard said.

Zhuang could have received a sentence as long as 40 years.

He and his wife were indicted by a federal grand jury last February after a five-year investigation that also netted five other defendants in unrelated cases of arms smuggling.