Monday, August 28, 2006

MITUTOYO Corp Sold RESTRICTED MACHINES to MALAYSIA SCOMI Company (via SINGAPORE) with FALSIFIED Names & Capabilities to BYPASS Rejection.

The Mitutoyo's Utsunomiya operations facility was raided on Friday morning. (ABOVE) where investigators went in and carted away documents (BELOW)

Singapore is one of the main conduits in the export of the company’s precision equipments. About 200 precision measuring devices and similar tools have been exported to the Singapore subsidiary since 1995. And the company is giving priority to expanding its profits instead of complying with export regulations.

Investigators said Takatsuji and the other suspects exported two three-dimensional measuring machines to a subsidiary in Singapore in October 2001 and November that year without the required permission from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The equipment was shipped to Libya via Dubai by Scomi Precision Engineering Bhd., (controlled by PM Abdullah's son Kamaluddin) a Malaysian manufacturer linked to an international nuclear trafficking network, Kyodo reported.

The company, also known as SCOPE, imported six units from Mitutoyo in early 2002, Kyodo said.

The company was linked to a proliferation network led by Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, when some 25,000 SCOPE-produced centrifuge parts for enriching uranium were seized in October 2003 en route to Libya.

Malaysian police cleared SCOPE of allegations that it knew the parts were bound for Libya, or intended for nuclear use. The company said it thought they were destined for the oil and gas industry in Dubai.

And now what is this 3-D Co-ordinating Measuring Equipment that is capable of manufacturing centrifuge machines to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.?

ABOVE: This is ONE of a 3-D CO-Ordinate Measuring Machine where a probe goes round an object and accurately "COPY" out its dimensions

Actually these machines ARE NOT capable of making the centrifuge machines. They are use as “COPYCAT” machines to duplicate in great precision and accuracy the EXACT sizes of a sample of a centrifuge.


This is a table top example of the 3-D Measuring machine

The devices map cylindrical shapes in great detail and cannot be exported without government permission, according to officials from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The most advanced versions of the machine can be used to determine the dimensions of centrifuges used in uranium enrichment, Murakami said.

from Manichi Daily News, Aug 28 06



Mitutoyo president, execs arrested over exports of nuclear-related equipment

A Metropolitan Police Department investigation vehicle enters Mitutoyo's Utsunomiya operations facility on Friday morning.

The president of major Japanese precision instrument manufacturer Mitutoyo Corp. was arrested Friday along with four other workers on suspicion of illegally exporting equipment that can be used to develop nuclear weapons, law enforcers said.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Mitutoyo President Kazusaku Tezuka, 67, Vice-Chairman Norio Takatsuji, 71, and three other suspects on suspicion of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law by exporting three-dimensional measuring machines, which can be used in nuclear development.

One measuring machine was reportedly found in Libya and another had been exported to Iran. Police are investigating the route of the exports.

The other suspects arrested by police were Mitutoyo Managing Director Hideyo Chikugo, 66; former Director Tetsuo Kimura, 65, and contract worker Katsuhide Kizu, 62.

Investigators said Takatsuji and the other suspects exported two three-dimensional measuring machines to a subsidiary in Singapore in October 2001 and November that year without the required permission from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The two devices were later transferred to a precision instrument firm in Malaysia through a sub-subsidiary in that country. The International Atomic Energy Agency later found one of the machines in Libya during inspections conducted in 2003 and 2004.

The precision instrument firm in Malaysia reportedly has links with a Sri Lankan aide to Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan, who is said to be a leading figure in the black market for nuclear weapons.

In February, Tokyo police searched Mitutoyo on suspicion of exporting measuring equipment to China and other countries without permission. Investigators later found that sets of measuring machines and operation software had been exported to Iran in 1997 and 2002.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) also raided a trading firm in Tokyo's Shibuya district. The company reportedly had business ties with the Iranian military. In 2000, police held suspicions against the firm for illegally exporting RPG-7 antitank rocket parts to Iran.

Mitutoyo was founded in 1934, and boasts capital of about 400 million yen. (Mainichi)

Mitutoyo schemes systematic / Executives aware of illegality of exporting sensitive devices


The Yomiuri Shimbun; (Aug. 28, 2006)

Mitutoyo Corp. executives, who were arrested last week on suspicion of illegally exporting measuring devices that could be used in nuclear weapon development, allegedly drew up plans to systematically sell the firm's products to clients via overseas subsidiaries, the police have learned.

The Kawasaki-based precision measuring device maker introduced the method to improve its profits. It is believed to have exported the products to clients without thoroughly checking why they wanted to buy the devices.

The Metropolitan Police Department's Public Safety Bureau is investigating whether the arrested executives adopted the tactic to camouflage its actual clients from customs clearance authorities.

According to the bureau, the maker's financial situation deteriorated sharply in the early 1990s. In November 1992, Norio Takatsuji, who headed the firm's overseas sales division, and Hideyo Chikugo, who was in charge of overseeing the firm's trade, and other officials set up a project team tasked with reviving the company's business performance.

Takatsuji, now vice chairman, and Chikugo, now a managing director, and three other executives were arrested Friday on suspicion of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law.

According to the bureau, the team came up with plans chiefly aimed at expanding exports. The plans included developing computer software that made the firm's devices appear to have lower capabilities than their actual potential, so that the products could bypass the government's export regulations.

The team also planned to export the devices to overseas subsidiaries before being sold to the actual clients.

Mitutoyo is believed to have implemented these plans from around 1995.

The firm has subsidiaries in 25 countries and territories around the world. About 200 precision measuring devices and similar tools have been exported to the Singapore subsidiary since 1995.

At that time, some company employees were concerned that selling devices via an overseas subsidiary could be illegal. However, these concerns were ignored on the grounds that the selling method was based on "the company's policy."

In addition, a senior Mitutoyo official reportedly said: "In this process, our trading partner is our overseas subsidiary. No matter where our products are delivered after that, it won't harm the headquarters [in Japan]."

This comment suggested the official was aware the process was introduced to deliberately avoid the government's export regulations.

The government revised an ordinance related to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law at the end of 1992 which requires manufacturers to obtain permission from the economy, trade and industry minister to export precision measuring devices.

The government named Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea as "states of concern." A company needs the minister's permission if it wants to sell these four countries devices that could be used in the development of nuclear weapons and are worth more than 50,000 yen.

Since April 2002, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has named foreign firms thought to be involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction. Exports to these companies have been banned.

The bureau is investigating how Mitutoyo managed its trading business on suspicion it made the illegal exports by giving priority to expanding its profits instead of complying with export regulations.

Meanwhile, the bureau Saturday sent the five executives, including President Kazusaku Tezuka, to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.

Tezuka and Chikugo denied the allegations, while Takatsuji reportedly has basically admitted to them.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060826/kyodo/d8jo4lmo0.html

Mitutoyo falsifies Iranian recipient's name to get export permission
Saturday August 26, 9:21 PM

Mitutoyo falsifies Iranian recipient's name to get export permission
Saturday August 26, 9:21 PM

(Kyodo) _ Precision measuring device maker Mitutoyo Corp. falsified the name of the Iranian corporate recipient of a high-tech measuring machine in 1997 in filing an application document for an export permit from the Japanese government, investigative sources said Saturday.

Mitutoyo entered a fictitious corporate name in the application document's section for the machine's importer instead of Pars Switch Co., the real
recipient, in seeking the permit from the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry, the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry, the sources said.

The manufacturer exported the equipment that year via Seian, a trading house
based in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, to Pars Switch, which was one of the companies put by MITI on its list of foreign corporations suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction. Pars Switch is suspected of involvement in Iran's nuclear development program, they said.

The sources at the Metropolitan Police Department said they believe Mitutoyo
fabricated the corporate name of the machine's recipient to prevent MITI from rejecting the application for its export permit.

Mitutoyo entered the real address of Pars Switch on the application document, although it filled out the same dossier's section for the importer's name with the bogus name, according to the sources with knowledge of investigations by the Tokyo police's Public Safety Division.

It appears to have fabricated the name of the recipient of its equipment on the dossier on instructions from Seian and Pars Switch, which appear to have held consultations beforehand concerning the falsification scheme, they said.

On Friday, the police raided Seian's Tokyo office on suspicion of illegally selling the precision measuring instruments in 1997 to Pars Switch.

The same day, the police also arrested Mitutoyo's current and former presidents as well as three other executives on suspicion of exporting two high-tech measuring devices convertible for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons to Malaysia in 2001 without government permission.

One of the two in-line coordinate measuring machines was found in a nuclear facility in Libya by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors during their 2003-2004 checks.

The machines, known as three-dimensional machines, can be used to manufacture centrifuge machines to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Their
export is subject to restrictions under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign
Trade Law and the Export Trade Control Ordinance.

Japanese investigators found that Mitutoyo has used two different names for
the same three-dimensional measuring machine that eventually ended up in
Libya's hands. The machine allegedly traveled via the nuclear black market
run by Pakistani nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

The investigators believe Mitutoyo used the separate calling names for the same machine in addition to fabricating figures on the machine's capabilities to make it appear that it has lower capabilities than it actually has, in order to bypass Japan's export regulations on such dual-use high-tech products, the sources said.

In January 2000, the Tokyo police's Public Safety Division searched the Tokyo-based trading house Seian over alleged links with another trading firm, Sun Beam K.K., whose former directors were arrested on suspicion of exporting components for sighting device for antitank rocket launchers to Iran.

The documents the police seized in the 2000 case as well as the Mitutoyo dossiers it confiscated in connection with its high-tech machine exports
supported suspicions that Mitutoyo's three-dimensional measuring machines
and several other precision measuring instruments had ended up in the hands
of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces
Logistics between 1984 and 1992.

Seian is believed to have exported Japanese high-tech products procured from companies other than Mitutoyo to Iran on orders from people with links with the Iranian military, the sources said.

In February, the Tokyo police raided Mitutoyo on suspicion of exporting 3-D precision measuring machines to China and Thailand in 2001 and 2002.


The police sources have said the two Mitutoyo-made 3-D machines were ordered by Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia, suspected of being been at the core of Khan's nuclear black market. One of the two devices was shipped via Dubai on an Iranian-registered ship and eventually reached
Libya.

Mitutoyo, based in the industrial city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, just southwest of Tokyo, is a leading maker of high-tech precision measuring machines and runs a network of research institutes and factories in more than 20 countries.
GoTO TOP (Main Page)


posted by multidimid at 11:35 AM

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