According to a US Justice Department release on June 28th, naming United Technologies Corporation, Pratt & Whitney Canada, and Hamilton Sundstrand, Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) (evidently the main culprit here) made fraudulent statements in pursuit of profits to help china develop the Z10 attack helicopter.
PWC and its co-conspirators received a $75 million slap on the wrist from the US Justice and State Departments. $20 million of which will probably never be paid.
PWC believed that providing prohibited software to china would allow it to secure a dominant position in china's civil helicopter market.
According to David Fein, US attorney for the District of Connecticut, "PWC took what it described internally as a 'calculated risk' because it wanted to become the exclusive supplier for a civil helicopter market in china with projected revenues of up to $2 billion".
My personal opinions are that $75 million is not a big enough slap, and whoever decided in some corporate meeting that this greedy "calculated risk" was the way to go should be charged with a criminal offense and spend some time in prison.
Did PWC REALLY think the chinese would not reverse engineer their engine, along with its software, put it in their attack helicopter, and declare the result to be an "original chinese domestic product"? Don't they read the news?
Corporate Greed is a startling and depressing factor of modern life. Especially when it takes vicious precedence over National Security. Thanks,PWC
Shawn A
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