North Carolina Company Owner Pleads Guilty for Trying to Sell Dual-Use Technology to China

The defendant tried to ship accelerometers, which can be used in military and aerospace applications.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington on Jan. 9, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A North Carolina businessman pleaded guilty in federal court on Feb. 28 to attempting to export electronic devices with military applications to China without a U.S. government license, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

David C. Bohmerwald, 63, owner of Raleigh-based electronic resales business Components Cooper Inc., was formally charged in October last year. He now faces up to 20 years in prison for violating the U.S. Export Control Reform Act (ECRA).

“The disruption of this scheme to illegally export sensitive technology means that accelerometers and other items will not be used by unauthorized individuals or for adversarial purposes,” said Cardell Morant, a special agent in charge who supervises Homeland Security Investigations within the Department of Homeland Security, in the Carolinas.

The defendant purchased 100 accelerometers from a U.S.-based company in 2023, while saying that the end user of his purchase was a Missouri-based company that manufactured batteries and energetic devices for aviation, defense, and space firms, according to a court document. Neither of the two companies involved was named in the court filing.

Accelerometers, which measure the vibration, tilt, and acceleration of a structure, are dual-use electronic components with civilian and military applications. They are used in commercial products such as airbags and smartphones, as well as in modern precision-guided munitions such as bombs and missiles.

The accelerometer maker alerted law enforcement due to the defendant’s large order, the court document said. The company eventually agreed to sell 100 accelerometers to Bohmerwald’s company for $18,500.

According to the prosecutors, Bohmerwald had received $28,500 from a Chinese national who ran a Hong Kong-based technology company.

Bohmerwald’s package of 100 accelerometers never arrived in Hong Kong. He shipped it at a local FedEx after falsely listing the value of the package’s contents at $100. According to the court document, a special agent with the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry (BIS) and Security detained the package from FedEx.

When BIS and FBI agents interviewed Bohmerwald at his home in August 2023, Bohmerwald “admitted to acquiring the accelerometers on behalf of a Chinese-based company,” according to the court document.

The defendant also said during the interview that he had shipped 20 accelerometers to China in 2020 through another U.S.-based company.

“North Carolina is home to cutting-edge technologies that fuel our economy, improve our lives, and are vital to national security. But our status as a major tech hub also makes us a target, as America’s foreign adversaries seek to acquire sensitive tech to advance their military might and interests around the world,” Daniel P. Bubar, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, said in a statement.

Bohmerwald has a tentative sentencing date in mid-May, according to court records. The Epoch Times has contacted Bohmerwald’s attorney for comments.

There have been other cases involving individuals trying to illegally procure U.S.-made accelerometers.

In December 2023, Hans Maria De Geetere, of Knokke-Heist, Belgium, was charged in federal court in Oregon for violating the ECRA, according to the Department of Justice.

De Geetere was accused of illegally trying to procure accelerometers valued at more than $930,000 by allegedly falsifying that a Belgian government agency would use the electronic components, when in fact he intended to divert the items to China.

Yue Wu, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Seattle in August 2015 for conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, according to the Department of Justice.

Wu, who sought to obtain a type of accelerometer that could be used in satellites and spacecraft, attempted to convince a contact to send the electronic components to China either disguised as a different export item or via a third country.

Christopher Wray repeatedly warned about China’s intellectual property theft during his tenure as the FBI director.

China “is engaged in the largest and most sophisticated theft of intellectual property and expertise in the history of the world,” Wray said at the Vanderbilt Summit in April last year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.