TPMMuckraker

Foreign National Fined $13K For Trying To Sell Spy Plane On EBay

Foreign National Fined $13K For Trying To Sell Spy Plane On EBay

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.

Department of Homeland Security, Henson Chua, Immigration, eBay
Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Senior Associate Editor

Paul Werdel

Associate Editor

Sara Libby

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Carl Franzen

Sahil Kapur

Eric Kleefeld

Eric Lach

Nick Martin

Evan McMorris-Santoro

Ryan J. Reilly

Benjy Sarlin

Front Page Editor

David Taintor

Poll Editor

Kyle Leighton

News Writer

Pema Levy

Video Editor

Michael Lester

Polling Fellow

Tom Kludt

Video Fellow

Clayton Ashley

Research Interns

Michael Brooks

Publishing Intern

Christopher O’Driscoll

Miles Read

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Mary Cadwallader

Bob Edmunds

Bruce Ellerstein

Waldo Tibbetts

Manager, Ad Operations and Sales Support

Versha Sharma

Deputy Publisher

Callie Schweitzer

Director of Technology

Eric Buth

Designer/Developer

Ni Mu

Matthew Wozniak

Tech Fellow

Dennis Cahillane