Ex-GE engineer pleads guilty to trade secrets theft
A former General Electric (GE) engineer has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from the company.
The announcement was made by prosecutors at the US Department of Justice (DoJ) yesterday, May 28.
Yang Sui, a 42-year old resident of Niskayuna, New York, admitted that, between 2015 and 2017, he stole GE electronic files related to the research, design, and manufacture of semiconductor transistors.
Specifically, the documents concerned silicon carbide MOSFETs (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors), which are used in GE products including aviation equipment and wind turbines.
Sui will be sentenced on September 22, and faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, prosecutors said.
High-tech companies like GE have grappled with trade secrets theft in recent years, especially pertaining to turbines and semiconductors.
In December 2019, Miguel Sernas of Mexico City was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to steal advanced computer models used by GE to calibrate turbines.
Sernas admitted to conspiring to compete against GE using technology stolen by co-defendant Jean Patrice Delia.
Prosecutors have also brought charges against two Chinese nationals accused of stealing trade secrets from GE for the benefit of the Chinese government. One of the accused is also a former GE engineer, and pleaded not guilty.
Assistant attorney general John Demers described the incident as a “textbook example of the Chinese government’s strategy to rob American companies of their IP and to replicate their products in Chinese factories”.
China has consistently denied that it in any way backs or coordinates the theft of US and European technology.
The US has singled out Chinese companies like Huawei for allegedly conspiring to steal tech from US competitors. The dispute is tied up with wider geopolitical tensions and trade concerns, as well as concern over China’s leading role in the provision of 5G telecommunications equipment.
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