A Silicon Valley businessman was sentenced Monday to two years in prison for helping broker the sale of a night vision camera to a research institute linked to the Chinese military, federal prosecutors said.

Philip Cheng, 60, pleaded guilty in October of last year to violating a U.S. law forbidding the export of military-related items to China. He had faced up to 10 years in prison.

Cheng is scheduled to begin serving the prison sentence on Feb. 12, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco. He was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

Cheng was originally charged in 2004 with six felonies, including conspiracy, money laundering and brokering the illegal export of defense-related equipment. A 2006 trial ended in a mistrial when the jury couldn’t reach a verdict, and he later agreed to plead guilty to one count.

The indictment alleges Cheng and a business partner, Martin Shih, president of San Jose-based Night Vision Technology, didn’t get the required State Department approval before selling a military-grade “Panther I” infrared camera to the North China Research Institute for Electro-Optics for $65,000.

They also were accused of entering a contract with the Chinese military to mass-produce night vision equipment in China, according to the indictment.

Shih died in 2005, before his case could be tried.

(This version CORRECTS day to Monday, not Tuesday.)