Tennessee Professor Convicted of Export Control Violations to be Sentenced Tomorrow

After nearly ten months following his conviction of numerous export control violations, retired University of Tennessee professor John Reece Roth will be sentenced tomorrow, July 1, 2009, at 10 a.m. EDT by U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Information on Dr. Roth's sentence will be posted here as soon as it is available.

As we have previously reported, on September 3, 2008 Dr. Roth was convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiring with Atmospheric Glow Technology, Inc. to unlawfully export in 2005 and 2006 "defense articles" to a citizen of the People’s Republic of China in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.

Dr. Roth was also convicted of 15 counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act and one count of wire fraud relating to defrauding the University of Tennessee of the honest services by illegally exporting controlled technical data relating to a U.S. Air Force contract.

Dr. Roth faces a maximum prison sentence of 175 years and more than $15,500,000 in fines. While the maximum prison sentence for each of the 15 Arms Export Control Act violations (22 USC § 2278) is 120 months in prison, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines provide for a prison sentence in the range of 63-78 months. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines note that in determining the sentence within the applicable guideline range, the judge may consider the "degree to which the violation threatened a security or foreign policy interest of the United States, the volume of commerce involved, the extent of planning or sophistication, and whether there were multiple occurrences." Where such factors are present in an extreme form, the judge may depart from the guidelines.

The sentencing date of Atmospheric Glow Technology, Inc. has not yet been set.