A former Ford Motor Co. engineer was indicted on federal charges of stealing company secrets and trying to sell them in China, officials said Thursday.
Xiang Dong, who went by Mike Yu, was charged Wednesday with theft of trade secrets, attempted theft of trade secrets and unauthorized access to a protected computer.
Originally from Beijing, Yu was a product engineer for Ford from 1997 to 2007, when he took a job with the Chinese branch of an American company.
The indictment charges that Yu took Ford design secrets to China in 2005 where he shared them with Chinese automotive companies in the hopes of getting a new job.
His efforts failed and a year later he renewed his job search, going to California for an interview with Foxconn PCE Industry.
Foxconn, which manufactures electronic equipment for computers and vehicles, offered Yu a job at its manufacturing hub in China and he accepted on December 11, 2007.
The indictment alleges that three days later, Yu copied some 4,000 Ford documents onto an external hard drive before flying to China to visit Foxconn’s facilities.
The documents included system designs for instrument panels, engine and transmission mounting, doors, steering wheel assembly, sound and heat control, interior trim, and the wipers and washer system.
Yu did not inform Ford of his intention to quit until about two weeks later, when he sent his supervisor an e-mail from China.
A few months after accepting the position with Foxxconn, Yu again began looking for a new job in China, the indictment alleges.
In April 2008, he used the documents he’d stolen from Ford to try to get a job with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, one of Ford’s competitors.
Those efforts “proved unfruitful” and Yu later accepted a job with Beijing Automotive Corporation, another Ford competitor, the indictment alleges.
The Chinese companies to which he gave the documents in 2005 were not identified in the indictment.
Yu, 47, was arrested on October 14 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago after re-entering the United States following a visit to China.
He remains in custody ahead of a detention hearing set for Tuesday.
He faces up to 40 years in jail for the theft of trade secret charges and up to five years in jail on the unauthorized access to a protected computer charge.
“Protecting the competitive edge technology of our companies through vigorous enforcement of our federal trade secret laws is a top priority of this office,” said Terrence Berg, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
“Both employees and employers should be aware that stealing proprietary trade secrets to gain an economic advantage is a serious federal offense that will be prosecuted aggressively.”
A spokesman for Ford did not immediately return a request for comment.
