GE Power Engineer Xiaoqing Zheng is Alleged to Have Stolen
Trade Secrets Involving Turbine Technology
WASHINGTON – Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, of Niskayuna, New York, was
arrested today in connection with a criminal complaint charging him with
stealing trade secrets belonging to General Electric (GE).
The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for
National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Grant C. Jaquith for the
Northern District of New York, and, Acting Special Agent in Charge Charles
Margiotta of the FBI’s Albany Division.
The criminal complaint alleges that on or about July 5,
Zheng, an engineer employed by General Electric, used an elaborate and
sophisticated means to remove electronic files containing GE’s trade secrets
involving its turbine technologies. Specifically, Zheng is alleged to have used
steganography to hide data files belonging to GE into an innocuous looking
digital picture of a sunset, and then to have e-mailed the digital picture,
which contained the stolen GE data files, to Zheng’s e-mail account.
The defendant appeared today in federal court in Albany, New
York, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christian F. Hummel and was ordered detained
without bail pending a hearing scheduled for August 2, at 1:30 p.m.
The charge filed against Zheng carries a maximum sentence of
10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release
of up to three years. The maximum
statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for
informational purposes. If convicted of
any offense, the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court
based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The charge in the complaint is merely an
accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This case is being investigated by the FBI, and is being
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Belliss of the Northern District of
New York, and Trial Attorneys Jason McCullough and Matt Chang of the National
Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
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