Corporate espionage sentence11/22/2023 ![]() The FBAR processes that Zhang and his co-conspirators stole took Avago over twenty years of research and development to build. Zhang also worked with stolen trade secrets in a lab he founded at TJU while developing his new FBAR business. Along the way, Zhang obtained patents in his own name using trade secret information he knew was stolen from Avago. By 2009, they left their work in the United States to relocate to China, following a plan laid out by TJU officials to form another company, Novana, in the Cayman Islands. Zhang and Pang then connected their venture to Tianjin University (TJU) in China, an instrumentality of the Chinese government. Zhang and Pang illicitly shared trade secrets with each other and with co-conspirators in China while they worked for the U.S. One of Zhang’s co-conspirators, Wei Pang, started working at Avago at the same time. ![]() Zhang’s other victim, Skyworks, was developing its own BAW technology.Įvidence at trial further showed that in October 2006, Zhang and his co-conspirators started a business in China to compete with Avago and Skyworks. Avago, one of the victims of Zhang’s theft, was the leading company in the United States manufacturing and selling FBARs. Technological advances in FBARs have played a substantial role in creating smaller, more efficient wireless devices for both consumer and military applications. The most common and most profitable application of FBAR technology is as a radio frequency (RF) filter for mobile phones and other wireless devices. Film Bulk Acoustic Resonators (FBAR) are one type of BAW filter. ![]() Specifically, Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) and Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filters are used in wireless devices to eliminate interference and improve other aspects of device performance. “While this case exemplifies how easily a few motivated employees can conspire to misappropriate intellectual property for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China, Zhang’s conviction should serve as a warning to our adversaries that the FBI and our partners remain committed to aggressively investigating and prosecuting these crimes.”Īccording evidence presented during the bench trial, Zhang stole trade secrets relating the performance of wireless devices. “Economic Espionage is a pervasive threat throughout the United States, particularly to the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley which is the center of innovation and technology,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge John F. Anderson for the Northern District of California. By combatting theft, we protect innovation and freedom,” said U.S. Countries without freedom cannot match our innovation, and inevitably must resort to theft. No nation is more innovative than the United States. The Department of Justice’s commitment to prosecuting these cases should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone considering doing the same.” employer of trade secrets and sought to replicate the company’s technology and replace its market share. “Today’s guilty verdict on all counts is an important step in holding accountable an individual who robbed his U.S. companies, including his own employer, to China for the benefit of the Chinese Government,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. “The defendant plotted with Tianjin University to take trade secrets from two U.S. Judge Davila found that Zhang intended to steal the trade secrets for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China ![]() District Judge, following a four-day bench trial.Įvidence submitted during the course of the trial demonstrated that from 2010 to 2015, Zhang conspired to and did steal trade secrets from two companies: Avago, a designer, developer, and global supplier of a broad range of analog, digital, mixed signal and optoelectronics components and subsystems with a focus in semiconductor design and processing, headquartered in San Jose, California, and Singapore and Skyworks, an innovator of high performance analog semiconductors headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts. ![]() The ruling was handed down by the Honorable Edward J. Hao Zhang, 41, of China, was found guilty of economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, and conspiring to commit both offenses today, announced the Department of Justice. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |