United States v. John Townsend, United States of America v. Shiv Mohan, United States of America v. David Whyte

Shiv Mohan, an Indian national normally residing in New Delhi, India, John Townsend, a British national normally residing in Australia, and David Whyte, a Canadian national normally residing in Toronto, Canada, all now held in custody in the Western District of Washington, appeal from the denial of bail. We affirm the district court.

FACTS

At the two bail hearings that have been held in this case, the government presented evidence tending to establish the following: In April 1987 the Defense Department received information from a confidential source that a distribution system was being set up to export high technology computers to the Soviet Union through India in violation of United States export law. Those involved were identified as Sidhartha Bose and his company, Perfect Technologies, Ltd., an English company, and Shiv Mohan and his company, Kohinoor-Impex Private, Ltd. (KIP), an Indian company located in New Delhi. Perfect Technologies was to provide financing and KIP was to get the computers to the Soviet Union.

In January 1989, and continuing thereafter, Perfect Technologies, Ltd., KIP and Glaskovmos, an agency in the Soviet Union, were involved in a joint venture, whose…