DOJ-0001
Stolen Trade Secrets to Chinese Nationals
On November 21, 2008, Fei Ye and Ming Zhong were sentenced in the Northern District of California to one year in prison each, based in part on their cooperation, after pleading guilty on December 14, 2006 to charges of economic espionage for possessing trade secrets stolen from two Silicon Valley technology companies. The pair admitted that their company was to have provided a share of any profits made on sales of the stolen chips to Chinese entities. The case marked the first convictions in the nation for economic espionage. They were first indicted on December 4, 2002. The investigation was conducted by ICE, FBI and CBP.