NRI jailed for exporting technology to India

Parthasarathy Sudarshan, an Indian-American businessman, who owns an international electronics business, was convicted and sentenced to 35 months in prison by a US court for illegally exporting electronic components to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) in India involved in ballistic missile production.
Sudarshan and others at his company, the Cirrus with offices in Simpsonville, South Carolina, Singapore and in Bangalore, provided US companies with fraudulent certificates that claimed the end-users of the electrical components were non-restricted entities in India, when, in fact, the items were for VSSC.
There were no export licenses for any of the shipments to VSSC and BDL, which are on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List. Both the Indian entities are involved in development of ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, and fighter jets. Exports of US-origin commodities to these entities are restricted and require prior authorisation in the form of a license from the Department of Commerce.