US charges Chinese woman in multimillion dollar trade secrets theft case

The wife of a Chinese billionaire technology tycoon was charged on Wednesday with conspiracy to steal trade secrets from US seed corn companies.

Chinese citizen Mo Yun, 42, was arrested on Tuesday in Los Angeles after being named in an indictment filed in federal court in Des Moines.

A spokesman for US Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt said he could not comment on whether she was in the United States on a work or visitor visa or why she was in California.

Mo’s arrest is the latest development in a case Klinefeldt announced in December in which several employees of Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group, known as DBN Group, or its subsidiaries were alleged to have stolen patented seed corn from fields in Iowa and Illinois and shipped it to China to try to reproduce its traits.

The indictment filed in December listed six men as part of the conspiracy. An updated indictment filed on Wednesday added Mo to the list and provided further details about the operation the government alleges continued from January 2007 to December 2012.

It said Mo was in charge of DBN Group’s research project management team while she was employed by the company from August 2001 to March 2009.