13 things about US Marine Corps veteran Daniel Duggan from Boston, Massachusetts

Daniel Edmund Duggan is a former citizen of the United States and a naturalized citizen of Australia. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, he was a member of the football team at Milton High School in Milton, Massachusetts and a U.S. Marine Corps major.

BIOGRAPHY

Before moving to Australia, Duggan lived in China. He served as the director and chief pilot of Top Gun Australia, which he founded in Tasmania, Australia, and the managing director of AVIBIZ Limited, an aviation consultancy company based in Qingdao, China, and worked as the general manager of MCT-Asia Ltd in Beijing, China.

In 2017, a grand jury indictment in the U.S. accused Duggan of training Chinese military pilots in violation of a U.S. arms embargo. In 2020, AVIBIZ Limited dissolved.

After graduating from Milton High School, Duggan went to Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. From 1981 to 1986, he attended Milton High School.
2. From 1986 to 1991, he attended Bridgewater State University where he earned his bachelor’s degree in aviation science.
3. From May 1989 to October 2002, he served with the U.S. Marine Corps as a pilot and a flight instructor before rising to the rank of major.
4. In November 2005, he moved to Tasmania.
5. As early as 2008, he received an email from the U.S. State Department informing him that he was required to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and apply for permission to train a foreign air force.
6. In May 2012, Chinese defense hacker Su Bin paid for his travel from Australia to Beijing.
7. Between November 2012 and December 2012, he undertook one test-pilot contract for the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, South Africa but he never worked for the company on any of its training mandates in China.
8. In April 2014, he sold Top Gun Australia.
9. In May 2014, he moved to Beijing.
10. In 2016, he renounced his U.S. citizenship at the U.S. embassy in Beijing but on a certificate, it was backdated to 2012.
11. In October 2017, he registered AVIBIZ Limited.
12. In 2022, he was arrested in Australia.
13. In July 2024, he turned 56.

TIMELINE

Aside from Boston, Duggan has lived in different parts of Massachusetts including Dorchester Center and Milton. He has lived in different parts of North Carolina, USA including Atlantic Beach and Cherry Point and he also previously lived in Brooklyn, New York, USA, in Monterey, California, USA in Yuma, Arizona, USA.

2022

• On October 21, 2022, Australian Federal Police arrested him in Orange, New South Wales, Australia following a request from the U.S. government.
• On November 4, 2022, his defense lawyer Dennis Miralis said he would fight his extradition to the U.S. and seek the intervention of an intelligence watchdog.
• On November 28, 2022, a court in Sydney, New South Wales was told that the U.S. must lodge an extradition request for him by December 20, 2022 under a bilateral treaty.

2023

• In March 2023, the Australian Inspector General of Intelligence and Security began a formal inquiry into his detention.

2024

• In March 2024, in a submission to Australia’s attorney general Mark Dreyfus, his lawyer Bernard Collaery said that he unknowingly worked with Su.
• In May 2024, a magistrate ruled that he could be extradited to the U.S.
• In August 2024, his lawyers alleged in an 89-page submission filed to Dreyfus’s office that he had become a political pawn during a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and China.
• On December 23, 2024, Dreyfus confirmed that he would be extradited to face charges in the U.S.