U.S. Military Source Code and Trade Secrets to China 

On June 18, 2008, Xiaodong Sheldon Meng was sentenced in the Northern District of California to 24 months in prison, three-years of supervised release, and a $10,000 fine for committing economic espionage and violating the Arms Export Control Act. Meng pleaded guilty in August 2007 to violating the Economic Espionage Act by misappropriating a trade secret used to simulate motion for military training and other purposes, with the intent to benefit China’s Navy Research Center in Beijing. He also pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act for illegally exporting military source code involving a program used for training military fighter pilots. Meng was the first defendant in the country to be convicted of exporting military source code pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act. He was also the first defendant to be sentenced under the Economic Espionage Act. Meng was charged in a superseding indictment on December 13, 2006. The investigation was conducted by FBI and ICE.