Scientist accused of espionage kept passport after guilty plea
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
October 27, 2009
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| Stewart Nozette (AP file photo) |
A Maryland scientist accused of attempted espionage was allowed to keep his passport and travel the world so he could help authorities with an ongoing government corruption investigation, court documents show.
Stewart Nozette also pleaded guilty to overbilling NASA and other agencies, yet continued to have access to "secure government facilities," including NASA headquarters in Washington, prosecutors wrote.
In January, Nozette admitted to overbilling the government $265,205 for work he and an employee did for NASA and the Department of Defense from 2000 to 2006, according to recently unsealed court documents.
The 52-year-old Chevy Chase scientist, who worked on missile defense and other top secret military programs, was arrested last week on attempted espionage charges. Authorities say in September and early October, Nozette accepted $11,000 in return for providing military secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.
Nozette was charged with fraud and tax evasion in December. Two days before his January guilty plea, Nozette's bags were searched as he left the United States for a country that is not named in court documents. Inside Nozette's bags, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer found two thumb drives. When the bags were searched again upon his return, the thumb drives were gone, according to court documents that detailed Nozette's attempts at espionage. His attorney declined to comment.
In December, prosecutors asked a judge to allow Nozette to keep his passport because "travel was deemed necessary as part of [Nozette's] cooperation" in the investigation into "potential wrongdoing by others, including government officials."
Nozette was stripped of his passport in June, although he continued to have access to NASA headquarters and Department of Defense facilities, court records show. However, security offices for those agencies were aware of Nozette's circumstances.
Nozette lost his top secret clearance in 2006 when NASA began an investigation into the finances of a nonprofit that Nozette created to help bring technology from government laboratories into the private sphere. That investigation, sources say, led to the espionage case.
From 1998 to 2008, prosecutors say Nozette earned $225,000 by answering monthly questionnaires for an aerospace company wholly owned by the Israeli government. A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy said Israel had no knowledge of Nozette.
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