Apple has ‘deep concerns’ that ex-employees accused of stealing trade secrets will flee to China
- The two men were each charged with one count of criminal trade secrets theft and pleaded not guilty at a hearing in California
- Federal prosecutors alleged that one suspect worked on Apple’s secretive self-driving car programme and took files related to the plan before going to work for Chinese competitor
Apple on Monday told a federal court it has “deep concerns” that two Chinese-born former employees accused of stealing trade secrets from the company will try to flee before their trials if their locations are not monitored.
At a hearing in US District Court for the Northern District of California, prosecutors argued that Xiaolang Zhang and Jizhong Chen should continue to be monitored because they present flight risks.
Federal prosecutors alleged Zhang worked on Apple’s secretive self-driving car programme and took files related to the project before disclosing that he was going to work for a Chinese competitor. Federal agents arrested Zhang last year at the San Jose airport as he was about to board a flight for China.
Prosecutors allege Chen took from Apple more than 2,000 files containing “manuals, schematics, diagrams and photographs of computer screens showing pages in Apple’s secure databases” with intent to share them. Agents arrested him in January at a railway station on his way to San Francisco International Airport for a trip to China.
The men were each charged with one count of criminal trade secrets theft and pleaded not guilty. They were released on bail soon after their arrests and have been monitored since then.
Attorney Daniel Olmos, who represents the men, said Monday that both had family reasons to visit China and had shown no signs of violating their pre-trial conditions so far.
