Couple Indicted for Stealing Hybrid Technology to Sell to China
A couple from Michigan have been charged with carrying out economic espionage on hybrid cars made by GM and attempting to sell the information to a car manufacturer in China.
Yu Qin, 49, and his wife, Shanshan Du, 51, of Troy, Mich. have been charged with four violations, including wire fraud, unauthorized possession of trade secrets, conspiracy to possess trade secrets and obstruction of justice, according to an indictment unsealed last week.
The couple stand accused of attempting to acquire information on hybrid cars from GM. The wife is alleged to have used her employment with GM to steal trade secrets and provide them to her husband, who owned and operated a company called Millennium Technology International Inc.
The wife copied trade information to an external hard-drive within five days of her severance agreement with GM. The couple then used electronic and computer technology to pass on the information to Chery Automobile, a Chinese automotive manufacturer.
GM estimates the stolen information to be worth $40 million.
“As our auto industry works to find new areas of innovation, such as hybrid technology, we will not tolerate the theft of our trade secrets from foreign competitors,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said. “ We will aggressively prosecute people who steal from the investment that our auto industry has made in research and development.”
A statement from the DOJ can be found here
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