Chinese CEO sentenced for ploy to 'reverse engineer' US military engines with help of U.S. Navy officer

Steve Patterson The Florida Times-Union (TNS) A Chinese business executive who wanted to copy American-made boat engines to sell to China's Navy was sentenced Wednesday evening to 42 months in prison by a federal judge in Jacksonville. Ge Songtao, who was indicted in 2019 along with a Jacksonville-based U.S. Navy officer and two people working for his company, pleaded guilty in November to two export reporting crimes authorities turned up during a three-year investigation that used foreign-intelligence surveillance warrants . The sentence was more than federal guidelines prescribe but well short of the seven years prosecutors requested from Senior U.S….