digitalzygot
Senator (1k+ posts)
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and his wife were charged with trying to sell nuclear weapons secrets to a person they believed was a Venezuelan government official, the Justice Department said. They were also charged with conspiring to participate in the development of an atomic weapon for Venezuela, the Justice Department said.A federal grand jury returned a 22-count indictment in New Mexico and the FBI arrested US citizens Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 75, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, today, the Justice Department said.
Mascheroni, a physicist, worked from 1979 to 1988 at the US government facility in New Mexico which conducts nuclear weapons research, and his wife, who did technical writing and editing, worked there between 1981 and 2010. He allegedly asked about obtaining Venezuelan citizenship, discussed payment and told the undercover agent to address him as "Luke" and that he would set up an email account, the Justice Department said.In November 2008, Mascheroni allegedly delivered to a "dead drop," which was a post office box, a disk with a coded 132-page document, "A Deterrence Program for Venezuela," on it which contained classified nuclear weapons data, the Justice Department said.
Mascheroni said the fee for producing the document was $793,000, the Justice Department said. In July 2009, Mascheroni delivered to the dead drop a disk that contained a 39-page document with classified nuclear weapons data, according to the indictment.
Mascheroni, a physicist, worked from 1979 to 1988 at the US government facility in New Mexico which conducts nuclear weapons research, and his wife, who did technical writing and editing, worked there between 1981 and 2010. He allegedly asked about obtaining Venezuelan citizenship, discussed payment and told the undercover agent to address him as "Luke" and that he would set up an email account, the Justice Department said.In November 2008, Mascheroni allegedly delivered to a "dead drop," which was a post office box, a disk with a coded 132-page document, "A Deterrence Program for Venezuela," on it which contained classified nuclear weapons data, the Justice Department said.
Mascheroni said the fee for producing the document was $793,000, the Justice Department said. In July 2009, Mascheroni delivered to the dead drop a disk that contained a 39-page document with classified nuclear weapons data, according to the indictment.
