A Chinese-born engineer convicted of conspiring to pass military secrets to the People's Republic of was sentenced to 24 years and five months in federal prison. Chi Mak, 65, of , was formerly employed by defense contractor Power Paragon. He was found guilty last May of trying to obtain U.S. Navy submarine technology and to illegally export that information to . According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an investigation conducted by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service found that co-conspirators from the PRC instructed Mak to obtain specific defense information about current and future naval warship systems. Mak was advised to attend seminars to collect sensitive, restricted information discussed there and to compile that information on CD-ROM discs.