Chenguang Gong, Theft of Trade Secrets, California 2023

Former Engineer Pleads Guilty to Stealing Trade Secrets for Chinese Government

A Santa Clara County man and former engineer at a Southern California company pleaded guilty today to stealing trade secret technologies developed for use by the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches, track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and to allow U.S. fighter planes to detect and evade heat-seeking missiles.

Chenguang Gong, 59, of San Jose, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of trade secrets. He remains free on $1.75 million bond.

According to his plea agreement, Gong – a dual citizen of the United States and China – transferred more than 3,600 files from a Los Angeles-area research and development company where he worked – identified in court documents as the victim company – to personal storage devices during his brief tenure with the company last year.

The files Gong transferred include blueprints for sophisticated infrared sensors designed for use in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures, including by jamming the missiles' infrared tracking ability.

Many of the files Gong transferred contained proprietary and trade secret information related to the development and design of a readout integrated circuit that allows space-based systems to detect missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles and a readout integrated circuit that allows aircraft to track incoming threats in low visibility environments.

Gong also transferred files containing trade secrets relating to the development of 'next generation' sensors capable of detecting low observable targets while demonstrating increased survivability in space, as well as the blueprints for the mechanical assemblies used to house and cryogenically cool the victim company's sensors.

This information was among the victim company's most important trade secrets that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Many of the files had been marked '[VICTIM COMPANY] PROPRIETARY,' 'FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY,' 'PROPRIETARY INFORMATION,' and 'EXPORT CONTROLLED.'

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/engineer-pleads-guilty-stealing-chinese-governments-benefit-trade-secret-technology-designed