The family of a Maui resident indicted yesterday in the sale of military secrets to foreign governments said he was merely consulting with some of America's "closest allies" and that the allegations arose from a "terrible misunderstanding."

The six-count indictment issued yesterday against Noshir S. Gowadia, 61, of Ha'iku, accuses him of "transmitting national defense information and exporting classified technical data related to defense articles to foreign persons" on three occasions, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Three additional counts accuse the former Northrop Corp. design engineer of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Each of the six counts carries a 10-year maximum prison sentence and a fine up to $250,000.

A written statement released on behalf of Gowadia's wife, two children, two sisters and his brother said, "Over the past 20 years, Professor Gowadia has worked with several major American defense contractors as well as the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy and has consulted with some of our nation's closest allies on aircraft survivability."

In addition, the statement said, "The charges contained in the indictment are based upon a terrible misunderstanding concerning Professor Gowadia's consulting work with allies of the United States."

The statement does not name any of the allies nor does it name the defense contractors that Gowadia allegedly worked with.

The family said that once Gowadia's defense team "obtains the proper security clearance, they will be able to present evidence that will clear up this misunderstanding."

Gowadia's attorney, Chris Todd of the Washington, D.C., law firm Kellog, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, is in Honolulu but declined comment yesterday. Assistant U.S. attorney Ken Sorenson, who is prosecuting the case for the government, also declined comment.

Gowadia, a naturalized citizen who moved to the United States from Bombay, India, when he was 18, was arrested by federal agents Oct. 26 and is being held without bail at the Federal Detention Center.

Gowadia was an engineer with Northrop Corp. from 1968 to 1986 and was the chief designer of the B-2's infrared-suppressing propulsion system. The technology remains classified.

On Oct. 23, 2002, Gowadia sent an official of an unnamed country a fax containing details for the development of top secret infrared suppression technology for a foreign military aircraft, according to the indictment.

The other two examples listed in the indictment involve e-mails that Gowadia allegedly sent Sept. 6, 2004, and Nov. 22, 2004, to foreign business people containing proposals to develop infrared suppression technology for foreign commercial aircraft. The e-mails contained information, including PowerPoint presentations, classified as top secret and secret, according to the indictment.

He sent all of these business proposals without "having first obtained a validated license or written approval from the United States Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls," according to the indictment.

Federal agents searched Gowadia's home Oct. 13 and found classified documents from his days at Northrop and as a contract engineer in the early 1990s at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the FBI said. In a criminal complaint, the FBI said Gowadia told investigators that he provided classified information to eight countries.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.