Tuesday, March 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The gadgets that made The Spy Factory a haven for the curious are but a memory today after federal agents took custody of the Paradise Road shop, one of 19 U.S. outlets shut down for selling smuggled bugging and wiretap devices.
The takeover piqued neighboring businesses' curiosity early Monday as employees exited the building, personal possessions in hand, at the demand of pistol-packing U.S. marshals, who spent the day inventorying and seizing all merchandise.
"It's a shame," said an employee of a nearby business in the same strip mall, who asked to remain anonymous. "The problem was with the owners, not the employees. The manager was too good for his own good -- he helped the homeless boys around here with his own money, to make sure they could eat. He had bottomless pockets."
Three executives of the nation's biggest chain of spy shops pleaded guilty Monday in New York to charges that they illegally sold eavesdropping equipment that had been smuggled into the country.
The powerful bugs, hidden in functioning ballpoint pens, calculators and electrical outlets, were smuggled through U.S. Customs so The Spy Factory could sell them to anyone rather than just law enforcement officers who were entitled to buy them, prosecutors said.
The Spy Factory, based in San Antonio, sold transmitters that were much more powerful and had much greater transmission range than the Federal Communications Commission allows. The transmitters also operated on frequencies reserved for the U.S. government and military.
The pleas entered by The Spy Factory owner Ronald Kimball and general manager Marlin Richardson were part of plea agreements that interrupted their two-week trial and resulted in most of the charges being dropped.
Kimball also agreed to turn over all the company's assets to the government and close the stores, said Marvin Smilon, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.
The agreement had yet to reach computer terminals in the city of Las Vegas's business licensing division, which on Monday afternoon showed The Spy Factory Las Vegas Inc. still in business with the license they were originally granted here on Feb. 14, 1991.
"I accept full responsibility for my conduct," Kimball told U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
Kimball and Richardson pleaded guilty to conspiracy, possession and sale of wiretap devices and possession and sale of smuggled wiretap devices, charges that carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
A Spy Factory employee, Tracy Edward Ford, pleaded guilty to possessing and selling bugging and wiretapping devices, charges that carry up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
Defense lawyers had portrayed the defendants as patriotic Americans who became overwhelmed by their store's success and growth into a 19-shop national chain.
Sentencing was scheduled for July 1.
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