A summary of Southern California-related business litigation developments during the past week.

Ex-Aerospace Exec Indicted in Star Wars Case: The Tokyo divisions of Toshiba and Mitsubishi corporations and Nissan Motor Co. allegedly purchased sensitive information related to the Star Wars weapons system through a former aerospace worker who failed to obtain the appropriate U.S. export approval, a federal grand jury indictment said. The indictment charging Ronald J. Hoffman, a former employee of Scientific Application International Corp. in Los Angeles County, with seven felonies does not name the companies as defendants. The companies allegedly paid Hoffman more than $500,000 in separate deals for data on satellite development that could also serve as a bedrock for research on the Strategic Defense Initiative, prosecutors said. A spokesman for Nissan said “we feel we’ve been duped” by Hoffman, who allegedly assured the company its purchase was on the “up and up.” Nissan said it used the data only for satellite development, not for weapons research. Toshiba and Mitsubishi representatives were unavailable for comment. (Case No. Unavailable. Indictment Filed Nov. 15).