In 2017, he accepted a US-based job with a Chinese company working to develop self-driving cars before resigning from Apple, but waited about four months before letting Apple know about his new job, according to the indictment.
After his last day at Apple, the company discovered that he had accessed large amounts of proprietary data in the days before his departure, the Justice Department said. Federal agents searched his home in June 2018 and found “large quantities” of data from Apple, it added. Soon after the search, he boarded a plane to China, the department said.
Apple’s automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2014, when the company started to design a vehicle from scratch. A December report said Apple had postponed the car’s planned launch to 2026. Reports filed with the state of California show Apple is testing vehicles on the state’s roads. Apple declined to comment on the case.
In a second case related to China, US prosecutors announced charges against Liming Li, 64, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, for allegedly stealing trade secrets from his California-based employers to build his own competing business in China.
Prosecutors in New York charged Nikolaos “Nikos” Bogonikolos, 49, of Greece with smuggling US-origin military technologies to Russia while he was operating as a defence contractor for Nato.
Russian nationals Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin were each charged in Arizona for allegedly using their Florida-based company to send aircraft parts to Russian airline companies, while the Commerce Department in a parallel action suspended their export privileges.
In addition, prosecutors in New York announced charges against Xiangjiang Qiao, also known as Joe Hansen, 39, for allegedly using a Chinese company that is the target of American sanctions to provide materials used in the production of weapons of mass destruction to Iran.
US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco speaks during an interview in Aurora, Colorado, in April. Photo: AP
Qiao and Wang remain at large in China, while the other four defendants were arrested, US officials said.
Lawyers for Patsulya and Besedin, who were arrested on May 11, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Li did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not determine who is representing Bogonikolos.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the Justice Department’s No 2 official, in February called the newly formed strike force a joint effort with the US Commerce Department to safeguard American technology from foreign adversaries and other national security threats.
The Commerce Department last year imposed new export controls on advanced computing and semiconductor components in a manoeuvre designed to prevent China from acquiring certain chips. The United States and a coalition of 37 other countries also imposed export controls on Russia over the past year in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
