Haoyang Yu, Theft of Trade Secrets, Massachusetts 2023

BOSTON – A shocking case of corporate espionage has come to light in the Massachusetts courts, with a Lexington couple and their semiconductor company being charged with theft of trade secrets from Norwood Semiconductor Company Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI).

HaoYang Yu, a/k/a “Jack Yu,” a/k/a “Harry Yu,” a/k/a “Jack Tricon,” 41, of Lexington, and his company, Tricon MMIC LLC (Tricon), were charged with three counts of possession and attempted possession of a trade secret; two counts of smuggling; two counts of transporting stolen goods; one count of visa fraud; and one count of procuring U.S. citizenship unlawfully.

Yu and his wife, Yanzhi Chen, 22, also of Lexington, were also charged with three counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting wire fraud.

According to the superseding indictment, Yu was born in Harbin, China, and first came to the United States in 2002 through the student visa program. He became a lawful permanent resident in June 2009, and a naturalized U.S. citizen in March 2017. From July 2014 to July 2017, Yu was employed by ADI as a principal design engineer.

As alleged in the indictment, Yu worked for ADI designing and developing parts of monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), which are used in radio, cellular and satellite communications, as well as in defense and aerospace applications. It is alleged that, while working for ADI, Yu downloaded hundreds of highly confidential schematic design and modeling files that belonged to ADI, and uploaded many of these files to his personal Google drive account. The files Yu stole from ADI were worth millions of dollars.

Haoyang Yu and Tricon MMIC LLC are also accused of smuggling export-controlled technology from the United States to Taiwan without obtaining the necessary export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. All other charges each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

Haoyang Yu, 41, of Lexington, and his company Tricon MMIC LLC were charged with various crimes in a 24-count superseding indictment in connection with the theft of hundreds of files containing proprietary information from Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), a worldwide semiconductor company headquartered in Norwood.

Defendant information: Haoyang Yu, 41, of Lexington, and his company Tricon MMIC LLC. Exact criminal charges: three counts of possession and attempted possession of a trade secret, two counts of smuggling, two counts of transporting stolen goods, one count of visa fraud, one count of procuring U.S. citizenship unlawfully, three counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting wire fraud. City and state: Lexington, Massachusetts. Exact date: Not specified. Sentence or outcome: Under indictment. Dollar amounts: Millions of dollars.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/lexington-couple-and-their-semiconductor-company-indicted-charges-theft-trade-secrets