A grand jury in the US on Tuesday indicted a former Apple employee, charging him with theft and attempted theft of trade secrets and then fleeing to China.
The accused has been identified as 35-year-old Weibao Wang who was hired by Apple in March 2016 to work as a software engineer. According to the indictment, in 2017, Weibao accepted a job from a Chinese company working to develop self-driving cars before resigning from Apple. However, he waited four months before informing the tech giant of his new job.
Afterwards, Apple discovered that Weibao had accessed large amounts of secret and proprietary data, days before his departure. Consequently, the federal authorities were informed who raided his home in June 2018 and found “large quantities” of data from Apple.
Fearing that authorities were tightening the noose, he purchased a ticket from San Francisco International Airport to Guangzhou, China – informed the justice department.
Weibao continues to remain on the run as authorities attempt to deport him back to the US. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine in the amount of $250,000 (or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the scheme) for each count of theft or attempted theft of trade secrets.
“Innovation is alive and well in Silicon Valley, indeed, throughout the Northern District of California. Unfortunately, there will always be some who cheat the system by stealing and profiting from the fruits of others’ labor. The Wang prosecution is but one example. We are pleased that the Disruptive Technology Task Force renews energy and focus on securing innovation for those who actually create it,” said United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey.
Matt Olsen, the head of the justice department’s national security division stated the authorities were committed to preventing espionage.
“We stand vigilant in enforcing US laws to stop the flow of sensitive technologies to our foreign adversaries. We are committed to doing all we can to prevent these advanced tools from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries,” he told reporters.
Other indicted industrial spies
Notably, apart from Weibao, the US prosecutors also charged Liming Li, Nikolaos Bogonikolos, Russian nationals Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin as well as Xiangjiang Qiao for myriad charges of industrial espionage.
Liming stole trade secrets from his employers based in California to build a competing business in China while Bogonikolos, serving as a NATO contractor, smuggled US-origin military technologies to Russia.
As for Russian nationals Patsulya and Besedin, they both were charged for using their Arizona-based company to send aircraft parts to Russian airline companies. Meanwhile, Xiangjiang alias Joe Hansen used a sanctioned Chinese company to provide materials used in the production of weapons of mass destruction to Iran.
(With inputs from agencies)
