Print edition: 
SANTA ANA, Calif. —A Chinese-born engineer convicted in the United States' first economic espionage trial was sentenced Monday to more than 15 years in prison for stealing sensitive information on the U.S. space program with the intent of passing it to China.
Dongfan "Greg" Chung, a Boeing stress analyst with high-level security clearance, was convicted in July of six counts of economic espionage and other federal charges for storing 300,000 pages of sensitive papers in his Southern California home. Prosecutors alleged the papers included information about the U.S. space shuttle, a booster rocket and military troop transports.
Before reading the sentence, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney said he didn't know exactly what information Chung had passed to China over a 30-year period. But just taking the "treasure trove of documents" from Boeing Co., a key military contractor, constituted a serious crime, he said.
"What I do know is what he did, and what he did pass, hurt our national security and it hurt Boeing," the judge said.
During brief remarks, Chung, 74, begged for a lenient sentence, saying he had taken the information to write a book.
"Your honor, I am not a spy, I am only an ordinary man," said Chung, as his wife and son watched from the audience. "Your honor, I love this country. ... Your honor, I beg your pardon and let me live with my family peacefully."
Outside court, defense attorney Thomas Bienert said he would appeal.
"We have a different view of the facts and the evidence than the judge," Bienert said.
Prosecutors had requested a 20-year sentence, in part to send a message to other would-be spies, but the judge said he couldn't determine exactly how much the breaches hurt Boeing and the nation.
Carney also cited the engineer's age and frail health in going with a sentence of 15 years and eight months. Chung had a stroke within the past two years and was hospitalized several days ago with a gastrointestinal problem, Bienert said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples noted in his sentencing papers that Chung had amassed $3 million in personal wealth while betraying his adopted country.
"I know that there's a lot of emotion on the defense side about what impact the sentence will have on the defendant, but I would like to put on the record that we are here speaking for the rest of the families in the United States who go to bed at night expecting that the security of this country is being looked out for," Staples said.
The government accused Chung of using his decades-long career at Boeing and Rockwell International to steal papers on aerospace and defense technologies.
During the non-jury trial, the government showed photos of every available surface in Chung's home covered with thick stacks of paper, and investigators testified about finding more documents in a crawl space. They said Boeing invested $50 million in the technology over a five-year period.
