The Justice Division introduced a court docket in Ohio has sentenced a convicted Chinese language spy to twenty years in jail. He tried to steal commerce secrets and techniques from an American firm.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs
The Justice Division introduced a court docket in Ohio has sentenced a convicted Chinese language spy to twenty years in jail. He tried to steal commerce secrets and techniques from an American firm.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs
The primary Chinese language intelligence officer to be extradited to the U.S. has been sentenced to twenty years in jail for attempting to steal high-tech aviation commerce secrets and techniques from an American firm.
Yanjun Xu was convicted by a federal jury in Cincinnati final November of conspiracy to commit financial espionage, conspiracy to commit commerce secret theft, tried financial espionage and tried commerce secret theft.
U.S. officers say the case is an instance of China’s relentless intelligence operations towards American corporations to steal top-flight expertise.
“As confirmed at trial, the defendant, a Chinese language authorities intelligence officer, used a variety of methods to try to steal expertise and proprietary info from corporations based mostly in each the U.S. and overseas,” Lawyer Common Merrick Garland mentioned in an announcement.
“At the moment’s sentence demonstrates the seriousness of these crimes and the Justice Division’s willpower to analyze and prosecute efforts by the Chinese language authorities, or any international energy, to threaten our financial and nationwide safety.”
The Justice Division says Xu is a 42-year-old Chinese language nationwide and an officer in China’s Ministry of State Safety.
Based on proof introduced at his trial, Xu tried to steal composite plane engine fan expertise from Cincinnati-based GE Aviation.
Prosecutors say Xu lured a GE Aviation worker to China to current a report back to a college. Xu later requested particular technical info from the worker, who was cooperating with the corporate and the FBI.
Xu proposed assembly in Europe to obtain extra proprietary info from the worker. They agreed to fulfill in Belgium, the place Xu was arrested by authorities and extradited to the U.S.
“This case is simply the most recent instance of the Chinese language authorities’s continued assaults on American financial safety – and, by extension, our nationwide safety,” mentioned FBI Director Christopher Wray. “So long as the Chinese language authorities continues to interrupt our legal guidelines and threaten American trade and establishments, the FBI will work with its companions throughout the globe to carry these accountable to justice.”
