A former US military pilot was apprehended by Australian authorities for sharing an address with a Chinese hacker, and he is now awaiting a court appearance and probable extradition.
According to reports, the Australian Federal Police detained Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, last month after receiving a request from the US. Authorities. Duggan used the same Beijing address as a Chinese businessman who was convicted of planning to hack into the computers of US defense firms.
The pilot relocated to Beijing from New South Wales in 2014 and gave his residence as a flat in China
According to Australian authorities, Duggan relocated to Beijing from New South Wales in 2014 and listed his residence as a flat in the affluent Chaoyang District. Su Bin, a Chinese citizen, was discovered to reside at the same address.
Su was detained in the US two years after being apprehended in Canada in connection with a case involving the theft of US military aircraft designs, according to US court records. Su entered a guilty plea.
The United Nations Entity List, a trade blacklist of organizations or people who pose a threat to US national security, includes Su’s aviation company, Nuodian Technology. The day after it was made public that the Chinese military was kidnaping former Australian and British pilots to train its troops, Duggan was arrested.
“I have asked the department to investigate these claims and come back to my office”
The flying school, situated in South Africa, allegedly hired ex-Australian military pilots to work in China, according to claims made at the time by Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles, who said he instructed the government to look into the matter.
“I would be deeply shocked and disturbed to hear that personnel were being lured by a paycheck from a foreign state above serving their own country. I have asked the department to investigate these claims and come back to my office with clear advice on this matter,” said Marles.