A Chinese national named Hao Zhang was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the United States by the U.S. District Court for Northern California for stealing trade secrets from semiconductor companies Avago and Skyworks . Zhang allegedly stole trade secrets such as semiconductor recipes, source code , specifications, presentations, design drawings and other confidential information from these companies. The original indictment charged Zhang and five other Chinese nationals. However, of these, only Zhang faces prison time for stealing trade secrets from the U.S. semiconductor companies. The other five individuals were released.
According to the indictment, Zhang and Wei Pang, one of the defendants, met at the University of Southern California (USC) during their studies. They then worked as semiconductor engineers at Skyworks and Avago, respectively, from which they stole important trade secrets. These were then leaked to Tianjin University , where Zhang was a professor, in order to enable the creation of a semiconductor manufacturing plant and a China-based semiconductor business , according to the indictment
In addition to the prison sentence, Northern California District Court Judge Edward Davila ordered the Chinese national to pay $477,000 in restitution to the two semiconductor companies that were breached.
Davila's decision is the culmination of a case that unfolded in 2015, when Zhang and the others were charged. The Chinese national was arrested that same year after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport from China.
The court's decision follows the US Department of Justice (DoJ) bringing charges against another Chinese national for allegedly destroying evidence in connection with a separate investigation into the possible illegal transfer of US technology equipment to China.
There have been multiple investigations into this case since 2018, according to FBIChristopher Wray, when the DoJ launched a campaign to investigate and counter Beijing’s economic espionage . It’s worth noting that the FBI currently has about a thousand investigations into China’s attempt to steal American technology equipment.
