Techies jailed for stealing secrets

[OhioChick]

Source: India Times Infotech

22 Nov, 2008, 0949 hrs IST,AP

CALIFORNIA: Two engineers from China were sentenced to a year in prison for stealing computer chip designs from their Silicon Valley employers and
trying to smuggle the secrets to their homeland to launch a government-backed startup there.

Fei Ye, a US citizen, and Ming Zhong, a permanent resident of the US, had pleaded guilty in 2006, becoming the first people convicted of the most serious crime under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. They were accused of trying to benefit China with their stolen chip designs, though prosecutors did not allege that the Chinese government knew of their illegal activities.

Ye and Zhong could have gotten 30 years, but prosecutors asked for less because the men cooperated with investigators. Both engineers apologised in court on Friday.

Only a handful of cases have been filed under the Economic Espionage law, mostly because it's difficult to prove someone was trying to benefit a foreign nation, even if investigators suspect it. Prosecutors say the trail of evidence often goes cold because of a lack of cooperation by other countries in investigations.

The case against Ye and Zhong stretches back seven years, when they were arrested at the San Francisco airport trying to board a flight to China. Their luggage was allegedly stuffed with sensitive documents on chip designs stolen from four tech companies they had worked for.

Other papers seized from the men allegedly showed they were trying to solicit funding from Chinese government agencies to help get their startup going. Prosecutors say the documents showed that Ye and Zhong were promoting the startup as something that would elevate China's chip-making smarts and help China compete better against other countries in microelectronics.



Read more: http://infotech.indiatimes.com/News/Techies_jailed_for_stealing_secrets/articleshow/3744100.cms

[Deja Q]

1. Why steal? Just offshore some more.

:silly:

[ksimons]

2. got off with less-than-a-wrist-slap - this is KILLING OUR COUNTRY like terrorism

These people should be considered spies, and charged with treason.

[lapfog_1]

3. Luggage stuffed with documents...

Uh, let them steal whatever they want as they are obviously waaaay too stupid to make anything work.

Documents can be scanned (if not found in the original electronic version). Scanned documents can be encrypted and sent over that "series of tubes" thing that other convicted felon kept yammering about. Or at least placed onto a series of CDs and with ABBA photos on the front.

Going through the airport with luggage stuffed with paper documents? (words fail)

[w4rma]

5. The thieves won't be the folks trying to make it work. The foreign buyers will. (nt)

[bluesmail]

4. "prosecutors did not allege that the Chinese Government knew

of their illegal activities". Hmm

[w4rma]

6. Microsoft plans to invest one billion dollars in China R&D

Source: Economic Times India

BEIJING: Microsoft Corp said Thursday it plans to spend one billion dollars on research and development in China, suggesting a continued focus on
the country's huge market, despite the global financial downturn.

"Our investment in research and development in China over the next three years will exceed one billion dollars," said Zhang Yaqin, chairman of the company's China research and development group.

The investment would "greatly boost information technology innovation in Microsoft and China," he told reporters in Beijing.

"The one billion dollar investment over the three years is new investment which will focus on human resources and other resources linked to research and development," he said.

He said the investment did not include money spent on mergers and acquisitions, suggesting Microsoft's investments in China could actually be even larger over the next three years.
…
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/ITeS/Microsoft_plans_to_invest_one_billion_dollars_in_China_RD/articleshow/3709329.cms
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3600635

[OhioChick]

7. China is going to be awfully damn powerful....

They are well on their way there.

[Azlady]

8. Kick & Recommend grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[psychopomp]

9. The Chinese have been engaging in corporate espionage and infiltrating our universities' research

facilities for years.

There was a report this year that Chinese spies successfully stole US stealth technology.

This has been going on for too long!

[Hannah Bell]

10. "we" have been giving "them" tech for a very long time.

e.g. check out microsoft's recent "r&d investment" there.

this is tech transfer - of, by & for the corporations.

there is no "us".

there's the owners & the owned.