Chinese man pleads guilty to stealing Monsanto trade secret in the US
- Haitao Xiang, 44, admits to conspiracy to commit economic espionage and awaits sentencing
- US prosecutors say Xiang had Monsanto’s proprietary farming software on his device the day after he left the company and was about to fly to China
A Chinese national admitted in United States federal court on Thursday that he stole a trade secret while working for Monsanto and one of its subsidiaries in Missouri, federal prosecutors said.
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Prosecutors said in a news release that Xiang transferred a trade secret to a memory card and then tried to take it to China for the benefit of the Chinese government.
Xiang worked as an imaging scientist for Monsanto and one of its subsidiaries, The Climate Corporation, from 2008 to 2017.
Court records say Monsanto and The Climate Corporation developed a digital online farming software platform to help farmers collect field data to increase productivity.
Part of the platform was an algorithm called the Nutrient Optimiser, which the companies considered a trade secret and their intellectual property, prosecutors said.
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In June 2017, the day after leaving employment with the companies, Xiang tried to fly to China. During a search, investigators found one of Xiang’s electronic devices contained copies of the Nutrient Optimiser, prosecutors said.
Xiang flew to China, where he worked for the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Soil Science. He was arrested when he returned to the United States.
He will be sentenced on April 7.
