U.S. Rejects Villa Park Man’s Extradition Conditions

VANCOUVER, Canada —  The U.S. government has rejected the conditions proposed by fugitive Charles McVey under which the former Anaheim businessman accused of selling supercomputer technology to the Soviet Union would voluntarily return to the United States, a lawyer for the United States said.

“His offer is unacceptable and unrealistic,” Canadian lawyer Bill Halprin said Monday. He represents the U.S. government in the extradition case that has been going on for nearly two years.

McVey, 64, is a Villa Park resident who was indicted in 1983 for allegedly conspiring to illegally export $15 million worth of state-of-the-art computers and other equipment to the Soviet Union over a 4 1/2-year period. He and two other men--Rold Leinhard, a Swiss national, and Yuri Boyarinov, a Soviet national--also were charged with conspiracy and making false statements to government officials.

McVey fled the United States in 1982, shortly before being indicted, and was then placed on the most-wanted list of the U.S. Customs Service that set up a program called Operation Exodus to prevent the sale of high technology to East Bloc countries.

Halprin, in announcing the government’s rejection of McVey’s demands, said he had placed unacceptable conditions on his offer to return voluntarily, including a request that the U.S. government provide him with a defense lawyer and put him on trial within 60 days.

McVey has been jailed here since August, 1987, while fighting extradition on more than 20 charges, including conspiracy and making false statements. He was arrested in August, 1987, while on a fishing trip in Canada’s Yukon Territory.