Man guilty in plot to ship military boats to China

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. » A Chinese man has been convicted in Florida in a scheme to buy and ship inflatable military boats from the United States to China. Ge Songtao, 50, pleaded guilty Monday in Jacksonville federal court to conspiring to submit false export information to fraudulently export maritime raiding craft and engines to China and to attempting to fraudulently export that equipment, according to court records. Ge Songtao was the chairman of a Chinese company called Shanghai Breeze Technology Co. Ltd. when one of his U.S.-based employees, Yang Yang, attempted to order seven combat rubber raiding craft equipped with engines that can operate using gasoline, diesel fuel or jet fuel, according to the plea agreement.