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UTC executives guilty of treasonous acts

E. Roy Colville Lebanon

Publication: The Day

Published 07/23/2012 12:00 AM

Updated 07/22/2012 11:55 PM

I was dismayed to read in the The Day, June 29, "UTC fined for exporting software used by Chinese in military attack helicopter," a division of United Technologies pled guilty to crimes related to the illegal export of controlled U.S. technology software in violation of the 1989 embargo which barred the export of defense articles to China, and providing misleading information to the U.S. government. The information provided to China enable them to develop their first state of the art military attack helicopter.

The motivation for this criminal betrayal was the desire to become the exclusive supplier for a Chinese military attack helicopter program with anticipated revenues of up to $2 billion.

The compromised technology was developed under defense contracts which were paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. In pleading guilty UTC agreed to pay more than $75 million in fines. That isn't an adequate penalty when measured against the harm to national security that resulted from reckless corporate greed. The fines will be paid by the corporation (ultimately the stockholders) and those responsible will fade into corporate anonymity.

They should be identified and charged with treason.

Why should wealthy politically connected corporate executives, who can be accorded anonymity, escape personal responsibility and be given a slap on the corporate wrist?