A federal prosecutor said Thursday a former B-2 bomber engineer helped China design a stealth cruise missile to raise money to pay the $15,000-a-month mortgage on the mansion-like home he built on Maui's north shore.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson told a jury in closing arguments to a four-month-long trial that Noshir Gowadia wove a "world-wide web of deception" to sell military secrets to China.

"The desperation began once he started building that house," Sorenson said.

Gowadia's defense attorney said it's true the engineer gave China a design for a cruise missile exhaust nozzle, but he said Gowadia based his work on information that was already publicy available. The design was "basic stuff" and "not classified," said David Klein.

Gowadia, 67, also deliberately gave inaccurate, misleading answers to questions about the nozzle from Chinese engineers, Klein said.

"No one is disputing Gowadia's trying to get money out of the Chinese," Klein said. "The evidence is that Mr. Gowadia purposely did not show the Chinese everything."