Pilot Daniel Duggan paid $116,000 to train Chinese aviators, US claims

The indictment against Daniel Edmund Duggan pinpoints 12 payments from China.

Daniel Duggan. Picture: Instagram

A former US military pilot ­arrested in Australia was paid more than $116,000 to train People’s Republic of China pilots to take off and land on aircraft carriers, the US government alleges.

New details from the indictment lodged against Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, have emerged alleging Mr Duggan received 12 payments from a Chinese-based business which was responsible for acquiring military training, equipment and technical data for China’s government and military.

Eight of the 12 payments were listed as being for “personal development training.

Each was for $9900, or $9500, and the payments were made between January 11, 2011 and July 6, 2012. They totalled between $116,250 and $116,400.

The payments were allegedly in return for providing “military training to PRC military pilots” through the controversial South African company Test Flying Academy of South Africa, which is at the centre of a “threat alert” warning issued by the British Ministry of Defence.

It has previously been alleged the TFASA was a proxy for Beijing to enlist veteran Western fighter pilots to assist the Chinese military to improve capabilities in which they fall behind Western counterparts.

The indictment, unsealed in the District of Columbia courts in the US, alleges Mr Duggan was involved with eight “co-conspirators’’ in providing military services to Chinese air force pilots, in contravention of US laws.

The indictment further alleges Mr Duggan and his co-accused sought to “defraud the US government’’ in its efforts to regulate the export of defence articles and services through “deceit, craft, trickery and dishonest means”.

In bombshell allegations, the indictment claims:

• Mr Duggan was also known by four other names, including three Chinese names – Ding San Xing, Ding San Qing, DSQ and Ivan.

• He conspired with six people and two businesses in the allegedly illegal provision of training services to Chinese pilots.

• Another US military pilot conspired with him.

• Some members of the group provided “false information” to be granted permission to export a training aircraft – a T-2 Buckeye previously used as a training aircraft for US Navy and Marine students – from the US to South Africa where it would be used to train Chinese pilots.

• The aircraft, specifically designed for training aviators on ­aircraft carriers, was allegedly purchased by a South African ­national, lawyer and associate of Mr Duggan.

• The US government warned Mr Duggan as early as 2008 that he was required to register with, and apply for authorisation from, the State Department’s Directorate of Defence Trade and Controls before providing defence training to the People’s Republic of China or Chinese foreign nationals.

• Mr Duggan, while in China, was negotiating the terms of his service and wrote in an email that “he hoped his children would be set for life as a result”.

Former fighter pilot Daniel Duggan with his children. Mr Duggan, an Australian citizen, is facing extradition to the US. Picture: Instagram

Mr Duggan, who renounced his US citizenship in 2012 and is an Australian citizen, was ­arrested in Orange, in rural NSW, in October, on a provisional warrant from the US, which is seeking to extradite him to face four ­charges.

The father of six strongly ­denies any illegality, and is fighting his extradition in the courts, after Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus agreed to accept the US’s request for extradition.

A former US Marine who flew Harrier “jump jet’’ warplanes, which take off and land on aircraft carriers, Mr Duggan moved to Australia after retiring from the US military.

None of the co-accused listed in the indictment are named. However, one of them, so-called Co-conspirator D, is known to be former British pilot Keith Hartley, who now resides in Adelaide, and was previously the chief operating officer of the TFASA.

Mr Hartley, who The Australian last month revealed to be a second Australian-based former military fighter pilot being investigated, is alleged to have sent an email to Mr Duggan describing aircraft carrier training he had conducted for Chinese pilots.

The South Australian resident and former RAF top gun, who went by the call sign “Hooligan”, allegedly solicited Mr Duggan’s help in conducting training via email in September of 2010.

Mr Hartley declined to comment to The Australian.

The TFASA is one of the two businesses listed as co-conspirators on the indictment.

The company, which is directly linked to Chinese state-owned aviation giant COMAC, provides training for Chinese pilots and has confirmed it previously employed Mr Duggan on one short-term contract.

The indictment alleges the company, referred to only as “Co-conspirator H”, entered into a contract between a state-owned entity of the People’s Republic of China to provide “aircraft carrier approach and landing training to PRC pilots”.

“The training was to occur in China, South Africa and other locations both known and unknown to the grand jury,’’ the indictment alleges.

“The training provided by Co-conspirator H required instructor pilots with knowledge and experience in naval aviation meeting NATO standards. To that end, Co-conspirator H contracted with Duggan.”

The indictment claimed Mr Duggan “provided military training to PRC pilots by, with, and through Co-conspirator H in and around October-November 2010, March 2012, November 2012, and other times both known and unknown by the grand jury”.

The arrest of Mr Duggan – more than 10 years after the ­training is alleged to have ­occurred and six years after he was investigated by a grand jury – has been shrouded in mystery and led to intense speculation about why the action had been taken now.

The indictment sheds light on the allegations the US government is relying on in order to seek Mr Duggan’s extradition.

It alleges Mr Duggan negotiated with a Chinese national, the owner of a business named as ­Co-conspirator F, to instruct in ­tactics, techniques and procedures associated with launching and landing aircraft from an aircraft carrier, for which he allegedly received financial compensation.

It is also alleges he provided evaluation of military pilot trainees and tested naval aviation-­related equipment.

It further claims he would be delivering a presentation in January 2011 titled The Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Mission Success, as well as another in May that year called the Naval Aviation Indoctrination Course to associates of the Chinese business.

The course allegedly referenced aircraft carrier training instructions and Landing Signal Officer training.

Mr Duggan is being held in custody and will return to court in Sydney on January 10.