US convicts two of selling DuPont trade secrets to Chinese state-owned firms
US court convicts two men of industrial espionage for stealing trade secrets from DuPont and selling them to Chinese state-owned companies
A US jury convicted a California businessman on Wednesday of selling stolen trade secrets to Chinese firms so they could develop a pigment used to whiten a wide range of products.
US officials said the conviction of Walter Liew Lian-heen, also known as Liu Yuanxuan, marked the first federal jury conviction on charges brought under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.
Foreign governments threaten our economic and national security by engaging in aggressive and determined efforts to steal US intellectual property
Prosecutors said Liew paid former DuPont engineer Robert Maegerle to provide trade secrets to help China’s state-owned Pangang Group companies develop a substance known as chloride-route titanium dioxide, or TiO2. The white pigment helps produce white-tinted materials such as paper and plastic.
Maegerle and Liew’s company USA Performance Technology Inc, or USAPTI, were also convicted of stealing trade secrets from EI du Pont de Nemours and Company, among other charges.
After a seven-week trial, the men and the company were also found guilty of economic espionage, bankruptcy fraud, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.
DuPont welcomed the verdict, vowing to “continue to take aggressive steps to preserve our technological edge, including co-operating with governments and law enforcement agencies around the world.”
Prosecutors said Liew sold the information for more than US$20 million to Pangang Group so its companies could develop large-scale production capability using the process in China, including a planned 100,000-tonne TiO2 factory in the industrial hub of Chongqing.