A Maryland scientist accused of giving classified defense information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer was under suspicion of breaching top-secret protocols as early as 2002, court documents said.
Despite the suspicion, Stewart Nozette was allowed to keep his clearance through 2007. It finally was stripped after federal authorities found classified information on his home computers while investigating him for fraud. He has since pleaded guilty to stealing almost $1 million in salary and benefits by lying on invoices for work he did for the Department of Defense and NASA through his nonprofit company, Alliance for Competitive Technology.
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According to an affidavit made public this week in D.C.’s federal court, the FBI started its investigation into Nozette’s alleged espionage in 2008 after authorities discovered classified information on computers seized from his Chevy Chase home. Nozette was not allowed to bring the classified documents home. That investigation culminated this fall with Nozette’s arrest on attempted espionage charges after he allegedly gave the undercover FBI agent classified information regarding U.S. nuclear weapons programs and preparations for mass attacks, the affidavit said.
Investigators searching Nozette’s computers found evidence, authorities said, that he had shared documents related to a project referred to in court documents as Advanced Concept Technology with Israel Aircraft Industries, a defense company owned by the Israeli government.
In October 2002, Nozette signed Pentagon forms acknowledging all past and future work on Advanced Concept Technology as classified, the affidavit said.
Within weeks of signing the forms, Nozette demanded he be given electronic copies of the project, documents said. When those demands were not met, he signed on to a colleague’s computer and, posing as the colleague, e-mailed a government subcontractor working on the project and asked the company to send “Stu” a disc pertaining to Advanced Concept Technology, documents said.
The colleague discovered the ruse when the company called him to verify the e-mail, authorities said. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service later determined that Nozette may have committed fraud by sending the e-mail, but chose not to prosecute him because he was cleared on the project, the affidavit said.
Nozette, however, was demoted from his role as Pentagon point of contact for the project, and in March 2005 the Department of Defense terminated his access to Advanced Concept Technology, court documents said.
