A man who worked for a defense contractor was arrested after allegedly attempting to send technical data on the F-35 joint strike fighter to Iran, Defense News reports.
{mosads}Mozaffar Khazee was arrested at Newark International Airport on Jan. 9 on his way to Iran. Khazee began a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1991, and worked for the defense contractor Pratt & Whitney.
Khazee planned to send boxes of sensitive technical manuals, specification sheets, blueprints, and other proprietary material for the F-35, authorities say.
He is charged with “transporting, transmitting and transferring in interstate or foreign commerce goods obtained by theft, conversion, or fraud,” and faces up to 10 years in prison.
The F-35 fighter jet is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program in history, and is seen as the future of American air superiority.