A judge ordered a Filipino foreign national to pay a $13k in fines and serve three years of supervised release for buying a military spy plane and trying to re-sell it over eBay.
The St. Petersburg Times reports that U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. sentenced Henson Chua on one count of violating registration and licensing requirements on Tuesday.
Chua pleaded guilty in July after he illegally imported an RQ-11B “Raven” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) from the Philippines into the U.S., in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.
Chua then attempted to resell the plane over eBay for $13,000, which the Department of Defense determined belonged to the U.S. government. According to the indictments, an agent of Homeland Security Investigations began to correspond with Chua, posing as a potential buyer. Over several months, Chua and the agent corresponded about selling the plane and also discussed how best to smuggle it out of the country.
Chua claimed that he bought the plane at an auction by Philippines government.
