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The U.S. Justice Department has charged a Chinese citizen with stealing trade secrets from Apple, including information about driverless car technology, in one of five cases brought by a new protection-focused task force. critical technologies against foreign governments.
A federal court unsealed an indictment Tuesday accusing Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, of confiscating thousands of documents, including on the research and development of technologies for autonomous systems used in self-driving cars.
THE DoJ alleged that while the engineer was working on a secret project for Apple, he also began working for a U.S.-based subsidiary of a company headquartered in China, which it claimed was developing self-driving cars .
Law enforcement officers discovered large amounts of data from Apple during a search of his California residence in 2018. He flew to Guangzhou, Chinathat night, although he told officers he had no plans to travel, prosecutors said.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the six charges against him, as well as fines. Apple declined to comment and Wang could not be reached for comment.
The case is part of a series of prosecutions filed Tuesday by five separate U.S. attorneys’ offices for alleged crimes including export violations, smuggling and theft of trade secrets.
These are the first cases of criminal charges brought by a DoJ and Commerce Department task force launched in February aimed at protecting U.S. technology from hostile government actors.
“These charges demonstrate the Department of Justice’s commitment to preventing sensitive technologies from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Russia, China and Iran,” said Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security at the Ministry of Justice, in a press release.
In a separate case announced Tuesday, another software engineer was arrested earlier this month for allegedly stealing trade secrets from two California companies, including source code for software used in “smart” manufacturing. He was accused of having sought to sell this technology to several Chinese companies.
Another Chinese national has been charged in a separate case with participating in a project to supply Iran with materials used in the production of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles through a sanctioned Chinese company. Payments from the program were made through the U.S. financial system, prosecutors said.
Two other cases revealed by U.S. authorities had ties to Russia and led to arrests earlier this month. A Greek national, Nikolaos “Nikos” Bogonikolos, was arrested in Paris and is facing extradition proceedings after allegedly acquiring sensitive technology on behalf of Moscow.
According to the indictment, he worked with companies that were part of what the United States called the “Serniya network,” an illicit procurement cell that worked on behalf of Russian intelligence services.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported Companies connected to the Serniya network continued to acquire items from the EU last year, despite US sanctions.
The network, according to the United States, works on behalf of the Russian spy agency FSB, notably for its Directorate of Scientific and Technological Intelligence, commonly known as “Directorate T”, to acquire sanctioned technologies.
Its other clients include the Kremlin’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known as the SVR; the public defense conglomerate Rostec; the Russian Ministry of Defense; and Rosatom, the national atomic energy company in charge of the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Bogonikolos could not be reached for comment.
“Our office has intensified our investigations and prosecutions of sanctions and export violations in light of Russian aggression in Ukraine,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who filed the charges against the Greek accused.
Separately, two Russian nationals were arrested in the United States for attempting to purchase airplane parts that prosecutors say were intended to be sent to Russian airlines, in violation of export controls and money laundering laws.
Additional reporting by Patrick McGee
