WASHINGTON – The parents of an American engineer killed under mysterious circumstances in Singapore say U.S. national security interests require that the FBI have full oversight and access to evidence in the case.
“There are extreme implications to our country. That’s why we want the FBI involved,” said Mary Todd, whose son Shane was found hanging from his bathroom door two days after he quit working for a company that he suspected of sharing sensitive technology with China.
In Washington on Tuesday, Singaporean Foreign Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam said his country’s police force is collecting evidence in preparation for a public coroner’s inquiry, at which the family is invited to participate and ask questions.
As for any unauthorized technology transfers, Shanmugam said that they did not happen and that U.S. officials are welcome to inspect records he said would prove it.
The company Shane Todd worked for, Institute of Microelectronics (IME), is subject to Singaporean government audits “that will make very clear there is no transfer of technology,” Shanmugam said.
The Singaporean police said they believe they have a copy of the hard drive the Todds found in Shane Todd’s apartment, Shanmugam said, a drive that the Todds say indicates that IME was planning to illegally share sensitive technology with China.
“The police are happy to accept their (the Todds’) offer to hand it over to the FBI for analysis, and the Singapore Police Force will share evidence in their possession with the FBI,” he said.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., met with Shanmugam in the latest development since Mary and Rick Todd traveled from their home in Marion, Mont., to Washington on March 1 to lobby State Department officials and their representatives in Washington to seek FBI access to evidence in the case.
Since then, Baucus has discussed the case with White House officials and Secretary of State John Kerry. He also instructed staffers of the Senate Finance Committee, which he chairs, to raise the issue with high-level Singaporean officials during a visit there earlier this month.
The Singaporean police at first classified the death a suicide, but their initial investigation “has been a sham,” Mary Todd said. “There’s been too many falsehoods.”
Baucus said before the meeting that the Singaporean police and government “have been less than forthcoming” about he case and that he is looking for answers. Baucus said he wants the FBI to have “full access” to all the evidence in the case, including Shane Todd’s computers, diary and autopsy records.
Evidence he has seen so far, in media reports and provided by Shane Todd’s parents, raise “very, very strong questions that lead me to believe that perhaps he (Shane Todd) did not” commit suicide, Baucus said. “A lot of it doesn’t add up and seems fishy. I have deep concerns about national security.”
Asked by USA TODAY whether Singapore will allow the FBI to conduct a forensic investigation on Shane Todd’s computer, cellphones and other evidence, Shanmugam nodded and said, “That’s part of sharing the evidence.”
Before his death in June, Shane Todd had told his mother that he thought IME was sharing technology with a Chinese company that could harm U.S. national security and that he felt his life was in danger. When the Todds arrived in Singapore after their son’s death, police told his parents they found a suicide note on his computer, and they provided a description of the scene where the body was found.
Mary Todd and her husband, Rick, said the note sounded like it was written by someone else, and Shane’s apartment didn’t match the police description.
When they shared photos of Shane’s body with a medical examiner in the United States, he concluded that Shane’s death was a murder and not a suicide.
Their suspicions grew even more after they asked a computer forensics expert to analyze a hard drive they found in Shane’s apartment, which was apparently missed when police collected evidence there.
According to the forensics analysis and an expert on the technology Shane was working on, files on the hard drive show that Shane Todd had traveled to the United States on behalf of his employer to be trained on the production of cutting-edge gallium nitride amplifiers. Gallium nitride is a restricted “dual use” technology that can greatly boost the power of civilian cellphone towers or military transmitters such as radar and jamming devices.
The hard drive also showed that IME had drafted a contract to illegally share the technology with a Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei, that U.S. intelligence officials say has close ties to China’s intelligence and defense agencies.
Intrigue surrounds American’s death in Singapore: Story
Both IME and Huawei deny working together on the gallium nitride project, or involvement in Todd’s death. There is no evidence that the draft contract was ever consummated.
The Singapore Police Force issued a statement Tuesday saying that it and the FBI “have engaged in several discussions and are working together on this matter,” and that Singapore’s police would “take into account” any information and evidence the FBI could provide.
Rick Todd said that Singapore’s police in the past have offered to take custody of the hard drive and analyze it, but that he won’t hand it over “unless there’s full oversight by the FBI.”
“We want them (the FBI) to have access to both of Shane’s computers,” Rick Todd said. “We need to have our own computer people see what computers were talking to the hard drive, and if it was Shane’s computer or an agent from another organization.”
If the Singaporean police and government don’t agree to his conditions, it raises further questions, Rick Todd said.
“Do they have something to hide?” he said. “We’re not afraid of the truth. What are they afraid of?”
Senator, parents press Singapore in son"s death
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