A Chinese national living in the US has been accused of stealing a software program from his former US employer and selling a modified version to the Chinese government after being fired.
Yan Zhu, 31, a resident of Lodi, was arrested on Thursday for stealing programming source code needed to modify the encrypted program as well as internal sales materials from the company, the FBI said. Authorities would not name the company or identify its corporate headquarters, saying only that it was located in Mercer County, New Jersey.
He and two conspirators sold the program to environmental protection agencies in China’s Hebei and Shanxi provinces for about 10 percent of its US$1.5 million value, the FBI said.
The incident is the latest episode in the ongoing battle over intellectual property rights between the two countries. Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark field office, estimates that the number of federal investigations into Chinese economic espionage has increased 10 percent since 2001.
“This is an act of economic violence,” Dun said on Friday of Zhu’s alleged theft. “A significant percentage of the FBI’s economic espionage investigations are linked to Chinese government agencies, research institutes or businesses.”
Zhu has been charged with eight counts of fraud and one count each of conspiracy and theft of trade secrets. He faces 20 years in prison on each fraud count and 10 years in prison for the theft and conspiracy charges.
Zhu, who is in the US on a work visa, was a senior environmental engineer for the company from April 2006 to July last year.
The FBI said he played a key role in its efforts to sell the program, which allows users to manage air emissions and water quality, in China.
The FBI said he was fired after his employer learned he had sent source-code and promotional materials to his personal e-mail address and was attending business meetings in China with his two suspected conspirators, who were not named. Court filings indicate Zhu, a Columbia University graduate, said he needed the documents to work from home.
The Shanxi agency signed a contract with the company to purchase the program in July 2007, but switched to Zhu’s modified version after paying only about US$300,000 of the US$1.5 million it owed. The Hebei agency contacted the company about the same product in November of 2007, but wound up purchasing Zhu’s version 11 months later.
Zhu is being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing in Trenton tomorrow, when a decision on bond may be made.
David Schafer, the assistant federal public defender representing Zhu, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on Friday.
A woman identifying herself as Zhu’s girlfriend answered the phone at his Lodi apartment. The woman, who only gave her first name as Anne, declined to comment on the allegations.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is