Jury Convicts Hughes of Plot to Defraud U.S. : Weapons: The firm was accused of faking tests on electronic parts for planes, missiles, tanks and other systems. The company and a former supervisor are acquitted of making false statements.

Hughes Aircraft was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday of conspiring to defraud the government by faking tests on sophisticated electronic components used in jet fighters, missiles, tanks and other systems.

The jury, however, acquitted Hughes and former Hughes supervisor Donald A. Larue of additional charges of making false statements.

It is believed to be the first conviction of Hughes Aircraft, a Los Angeles-based unit of General Motors, in a time when a large number of the nation’s major military contractors now have convictions on their records.

Hughes spokesman Richard Dore said the firm was “surprised at the inconsistency of the verdict” and said the company will ask Judge William M. Byrne Jr. to set aside the conviction at a hearing scheduled for July 16.

The electronic parts that were at issue in the case are called “hybrid circuits,” matchbox-sized devices that contain a large number of electronic components. The circuits are commonly used in sophisticated radars, missiles and other electronic systems.

An indictment handed down last year charged that Larue, acting on orders from Hughes executives, directed his employees at the firm’s microelectronic circuits division in Newport Beach to skip certain tests and falsify paperwork to show that the electronic components had passed the tests. In other cases, parts that failed tests were certified as having passed.

The indictment also alleged that Larue and his supervisors “routinely ignored various reports” made by Hughes employees that proper testing procedures were not being followed. After those reports, the employees allegedly were told to “get with the program,” the indictment charged.

The indictment did not allege that any of the components had caused failures in weapons systems. The alleged actions began in about 1985 and continued through 1987.

The company faces a maximum fine of $500,000, said George Newhouse, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Hughes.

“The loss to the government is very hard to determine,” said Newhouse. “We don’tknow how many thousands of deficient parts they shipped.”

Most of the tests involved were for determining whether the electronic circuits would hold up in long-term use, Newhouse said.

Byrne threw out a number of other counts in the trial, saying they would have to be tried separately. Newhouse said he did not know whether those would be retried, but added that the conviction had already sent the message the government was seeking.

In statements after the indictment last year, Hughes said there was no conspiracy and that the government’s entire case rested on the alleged actions of a single “line supervisor.” Former Hughes Chairman Malcolm Currie, in a letter to employees, said the charges were “hypertechnical.”

Larue retired in 1989. His defense was provided at Hughes’ expense, Dore said.