The appeals for indicted Dr. John Reece Roth, former University of Tennessee Professor that dragged out for years came to a conclusion on October 3, 2011, when the US Supreme Court decided not to hear the case. Roth, now 73, is serving his four-year sentence in a minimum security facility prison in Ashland. Kentucky about a 4 and-a-half hour drive from his home in Knoxville, TN. He is eligible for early release after serving 86% of his term. Additionally, he may be allowed to spend the last 6 months of his sentence in a halfway house. According to prosecutors Jeff Theodore and Will Mackie, Roth repeatedly and arrogantly ignored warnings because he disagreed with the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions. Roth and his lawyers countered he was merely ignorant of the law and that the AECA and ITAR only applied to finished products and not to those in research and development. If your organization does any work with academic institutions and/or research and development facilities, you need to be well up-to-speed on what happened here. Dr. Roth has been and remains “the example” to point to regarding knowing and willful violations of the AECA and the ITAR and what ultimately happens to those who intentionally violate the law.

1. DR. JOHN REECE ROTH (JRR) [Conviction Date: 090308]
United States Department of Justice (DOJ) - Indictment Summary (As of 020112)
Trade compliance professionals are encouraged to read the entire Indictment at http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/roth-indictment.pdf.
Counts Charges Fines & Penalties
General Eighteen counts of knowingly, willfully and illegally exporting military technical information relating to plasma * JRR ACTUAL PUNISHMENT
technology designed to be deployed on the wings of drones operating as a weapons or surveillance systems
1 - JRR & Atmospheric Glow Technologies, Inc. (AGT) did knowingly & willfully combine, conspire, confederate, Four years in prison followed by
and agree together & with other persons known & unknown to the Grand Jury to export & attempt to export, 2 years of Supervised Release
defense articles & services to one or more foreign nationals, including a citizen of the People’s Republic of Only monetary fine was the
China (PRC), an arms embargoed country, without the written approval of the US Department of State (DOS). $1,700 Special Assessment
2 - AGT did knowingly & willfully export Arms Export Control Act (AECA) in a report containing restricted which was waived by the judge
technical data (TD) to a foreign national through a coconspirator to a PRC citizen on specific research results
on development of a refined plasma actuator technology US Air Force (USAF) aviation munitions project. JRR MAXIMUM PUNISHMENT
3-14 - JRR & AGT did knowingly & willfully export, cause to be exported, and attempt to export AECA restricted TD
to a PRC citizen regarding specific research results on the development of a refined plasma actuator Conspiracy Conviction (1):
technology for a specific USAF aviation munitions project. Five years in prison & $250,000
15 - JRR & AGT did knowingly & willfully export, cause to be exported, and attempt to export AECA restricted 15 AECA Convictions (3-17):
defense services to a PRC citizen and authorized, directed, instructed, and otherwise furnished assistance, Ten years in prison for each
gave training, allowed unrestricted access and provided related technical information regarding equipment offense and a criminal fine of
designed, developed, engineered, manufactured, produced, assembled, tested and operated involving the $1,000,000 for each offense
development of a refined plasma actuator technology for a specific USAF aviation munitions project. Wire Fraud Conviction (18):
16-17 - JRR AGT did knowingly & willfully export, cause to be exported, and attempt to export AECA restricted Twenty years in prison & $250,000
defense services to a citizen of Iran, a prohibited country, regarding specific research results on the
development of a refined plasma actuator technology USAF aviation munitions project. Mandatory Special Assessment
18 - JRR devised/intended to devise a scheme & artifice to defraud & deprive the University of Tennessee (UT) its of $100 for each of his offenses
intangible right to the honest services of its employees, performed free from deceit, craft, trickery and dishonest WORST CASE TOTAL
means and used his position to knowingly & willfully export, cause to be exported and attempt to export Fines: $15,501,700
AECA restricted TD to foreign persons for his benefit & to the actual economic detriment of & loss to the UT. Prison: 175 years
DR. JRR’s BACKGROUND: A Professor at the UT since 1978 who worked at the Knoxville, Tennessee Campus in the Department of Electrical Engineering &
Computer Science, College of Engineering. He taught, lectured and published extensively and was a recognized expert. He served as the Director of the UT
Plasma Sciences Laboratory. Beginning in 1989, he traveled on multiple occasions as a UT faculty member to the PRC to visit with and lecture regarding plasma
research & technology at certain PRC state operated academic organizations & universities. Dr. JRR’s UT Website: https://www.eecs.utk.edu/faculty/roth/main
NOTABLE INDICTMENT QUOTES: “As embodied in a Code of Conduct then in effect, UT specifically prohibited actions or activities of its employees that violated
federal government security regulations as outlined in any applicable contracts and required employees to report violations of State or Federal laws or regulations.
For the time period relevant to this Indictment, UT had in force and effect specific policies that required all employees to comply with all federal export control laws
and regulations. Under these policies, each employee was responsible for understanding any export control requirements related to the employee’s work
and ensuring that no exports were made contrary to these requirements.” (See, Page 2, Paragraph 2., Sentences 5 & 6)
NOTABLE DOJ QUOTES: “Today’s guilty verdict should serve as a warning to anyone who knowingly discloses restricted military data to foreign nationals.”
(Patrick Rowan, Assistant US Attorney for National Security, DOJ) “This verdict, by a jury of Dr. Roth’s peers, demonstrates that our citizens and the United
States will not tolerate such international conduct to undermine the security and the economy of our country. Our scientific and educational
communities must take precautions to insure that technology and research are protected, when required, from disclosure to foreign governments.”
(Russ Dedrick, US Attorney, DOJ). [See, Page 1 of the 090308 DOJ Press Release and various media news articles in that same timeframe regarding this case]
* OTHER FACTS: This is the 1st US Government (USG) conviction of a university professor for unauthorized exports of defense articles/services. At sentencing, the 72-
year old Dr. Roth asked for leniency but did not concede guilt or express remorse. His subsequent motions for acquittal & retrial were also denied. His formal appeal of the
conviction was denied in January 2011 with the judge noting “The federal regulations extend export controls to all stages of defense projects that are covered by the Act
(AECA), not just the final stages when military devices are directly involved. The sentence was 15 months less than the Probation’s Officer’s suggested and 30 months less
than that sought by the USG. Daniel Sherman, AGT’s Director/Founder, received a 14 month prison term. AGT was fined $25,000 with a $4,000 Special Assessment. On
October 3, 2011, the Supreme Court denied Roth’s petition to hear his case. On January 18, 2012, he began serving his time in a federal correctional facility in Kentucky.
Trade Compliance Solutions There are no restrictions on distribution of this Indictment Summary exactly as is with complete/proper citation/attribution.
For changes, inputs, suggestions, please contact John Priecko at 703-895-1110 or jpriecko@comcast.net.