Former Ford Motor Co. employee, Xiang Dong Yu, also known as Mike Yu, 49, of Beijing,
China, pleaded guilty Thursday November 18 in federal court to two counts of theft of trade
secrets, announced Barbara L. McQuade, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
According to the plea agreement in this case:
Yu was a product engineer for Ford from 1997 to 2007. On the eve of his departure from Ford, and before he told Ford of his new job, Yu copied some 4,000 Ford documents onto an external hard drive, including sensitive Ford design documents.
On Dec. 20, 2006, the defendant traveled to the location of his new employer in Shenzhen, China, taking the Ford trade secrets with him. On Jan. 2, 2007, Yu e-mailed his Ford supervisor from China and said he was leaving Ford.
On Oct. 19, 2009, the defendant returned to the United States, flying into Chicago from China. Upon his arrival, the defendant was arrested on a warrant issued upon the indictment in the case. From his employer Beijing Automotive Co. laptop computer, the FBI discovered 41 Ford system design specifications documents.
Under the plea agreement, Yu faces a sentence of between 63-78 months' imprisonment based on an agreed loss amount of more than $50 million and less than $100 million and a fine of up to $150,000. The agreement also provides that Yu will be deported from the United States after completing any term of incarceration. (Source: Press & Guide, Nov 19, 2010).