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Journalism of Courage
Cheryl Gowadia couldn’t figure out why FBI agents in riot gear, guns drawn, were storming her home on Maui’s tranquil North Shore.
At first, she thought they might be after the man building a pond in her backyard. Instead, she was stunned to learn they wanted to question her husband, a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer.
“This came out of nowhere,” Gowadia said.
A week later, on October 13, 2005, agents arrested Noshir Gowadia, a native of India who received a PhD at 15, on suspicion he sold military secrets to China.
Maui, a mostly rural island of 140,000 known more for big-wave surfing and five-star resorts, is an unlikely place for a spy saga. But prosecutors say Noshir Gowadia used Maui as a base to design a stealth cruise missile for China. He was indicted on 21 counts of conspiracy, money-laundering and falsifying tax returns. Despite the seriousness of the charges, the case has received scant public attention.
The defendant has been out of sight since a judge determined he was a flight risk and denied him bail.
