US charges ex-Apple engineer Weibao Wang for trying to steal technology, fleeing to China
- The case was among five announced by a ‘strike force’ aimed at countering efforts to illicitly acquire US technology by nations including Russia, Iran and China
- Other cases involved the theft of source code from US firms for sale to Chinese competitors and a Chinese network created to provide weapons materials to Iran
The US on Tuesday announced charges in five cases involving alleged efforts to steal technology to benefit China, Russia and Iran, including a former Apple Inc engineer accused of targeting the company’s technology on autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China.
The cases detailed at a Justice Department press conference centred on allegations concerning the theft of trade secrets and other technology. Two of the cases involved what US officials called procurement networks created to help Russia’s military and intelligence services obtain sensitive technology.
The five cases were the first announced by a US “strike force” formed in February in part to protect sensitive technologies, though the investigations began before it was created.
“We stand vigilant in enforcing US laws to stop the flow of sensitive technologies to our foreign adversaries,” Matt Olsen, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, told reporters. “We are committed to doing all we can to prevent these advanced tools from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries.”
The former Apple engineer, identified as 35-year-old Weibao Wang, formerly lived in Mountain View, California, and was hired by Apple in 2016, according to an April indictment unsealed on Tuesday.