Cementing a deal
The episode smacked of suspense fiction: forgery, smuggling, government agents, state-of-the-art electronics, a Moscow address. But it also had an all-American punch line.
Last January, Teledyne Geotech Inc. got an order for one of its $114,000 seismometers, which are used to measure the force of nuclear blasts. Officials made a routine check of the number on the export license submitted by the would-be buyer, a Colorado company that wanted to ship the device to West Germany. U.S. Customs in Washington confirmed that the document was a fake. Agents began watching the officers of the Denver concern, Norman Cormerford and Bruce...
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