US CHARGES EX-APPLE ENGINEER WITH THEFT OF AUTONOMOUS CAR TECHNOLOGY FOR CHINA

Wed 17 May 2023:

The US announced charges in five cases involving alleged attempts to steal technology for the benefit of China, Russia, and Iran, including a 35-year-old former Apple Inc engineer accused of targeting the company’s technology on autonomous systems, such as self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China.

“In the Northern District of California, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and former Apple engineer is accused of allegedly stealing thousands of documents containing the source code for software and hardware pertaining to Apple’s autonomous vehicle technology,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

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.

After his last day at Apple, the company discovered that he had accessed large amounts of proprietary data in the days before his departure, the Justice Department said. Federal agents searched his home in June 2018 and found “large quantities” of data from Apple, it added. Soon after the search, he boarded a plane to China, the department said.

The defendant, Weibao Wang, fled to China, where he is believed to work for a PRC-based autonomous vehicle competitor, the statement added.

The indictment against Wang was unsealed Tuesday as part of a Justice Department effort to highlight cases coordinated by its Disruptive Technology Strike Force.

Apple hired Wang as a software engineer in March 2016, which included signing a confidentiality agreement, the statement said.

Wang was assigned to a team that designed and developed hardware and software for autonomous systems, which have a variety of applications, including in self-driving vehicles, the statement said.

In November 2017, Wang accepted an offer to work as an engineer with the US-based subsidiary of a company headquartered in the PRC, the statement said. Apple allegedly identified Wang as having accessed large amounts of sensitive information in the days leading up to his departure from the company in April 2018, the statement said.

The night following a search of his residence in June 2018, Wang purchased a one-way plane ticket from San Francisco to China, the statement added.

The indictment describes six categories of trade secrets Wang allegedly stole or attempted to steal, for which it charges him with one criminal count each, the statement said. Wang faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count, the statement said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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