BOSTON (AP) — A Chinese employee of a Massachusetts company has been charged in federal court with smuggling $6.5 million worth of equipment into China that can be used to enrich and produce weapons-grade uranium.
Qiang "Johnson" Hu, a representative from MKS Instruments Inc.'s sales office in Shanghai, was ordered held without bail at an appearance in U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday. A detention hearing is scheduled for May 31 on a charge of conspiring to violate export administration regulations.
Prosecutors allege the 47-year-old Hu illegally exported pressure-measuring sensors to China. Prosecutors say the devices are used in gas centrifuges to enrich uranium.
MKS said in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation and the company itself is not a target of the investigation.
Hu could not be reached.
