Four years ago, this blog reported on the case of Harold and Nina Hanson, a Maryland couple accused of exporting autopilot devices to China without a license. The Hansons ultimately pleaded to felony false statement charges in connection with statements they made to BIS investigators. Nina was sentenced to 105 days in jail and one year of supervised release. Harold was sentenced to two years of supervised release. Both were required to attend an export training class conducted by BIS, which some wags will suggest was the severest punishment meted out to the Hansons.

Of course, criminal sentencing is never the end of the matter with federal regulators normally hanging around the doors of the jail to pile on more punishments when the defendants are ultimately released. And the same thing has happened here with BIS announcing two days ago that it was imposing a 15-year export denial order on Nina and Harold Hanson to settle charges that they made false statements to BIS investigators. Am I the only one who sees the irony in ordering the Hansons to go to export training school and then ordering them not to export anything for fifteen years? It seems not too far removed from forcing a convicted killer to go to anger management classes before executing him.

Lisong Ma, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty last week to charges that he attempted to export carbon fiber from the United States without a license. Carbon fiber meeting certain technical qualifications is classified as ECCN 1C010 and would require a license from the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) before it could be exported to China. Reading the DOJ press release announcing the plea suggests that the defendant was either incredibly stupid or that something else was going on.

According to the DOJ account, the defendant contacted an undercover agent online and inquired into the purchase of a large amount of Toray T800 carbon fiber. What is strange is that the defendant actually came to the United States to close the deal. And, of course, the rest is history.

But what make this strange is that the Toray carbon fiber is made in Japan and appears to be readily available in China. Either the defendant was just dumber than the carbon fiber he was trying to buy or, possibly, the agents proposed an incredibly attractive price to lure him into the United States. Admittedly the failure to recognize a price “too good to be true,” if that is what happened here, is probably also a form of stupidity

As is typical with press releases of this kind, the government agencies involved spare no effort to pat themselves on the back for nabbing this dangerous criminal through “covert cyber operations.” Although “covert cyber operations” sounds intriguing, what it means, ultimately, is having a bunch of federal agents surf the net and hang out at alibaba.com looking for exporters to nab by dangling sweet deals in front of them. As they say (or sing sometimes): nice work if you can get it.