Hongjin Tan, Theft of Trade Secrets, Oklahoma 2020

Hongjin Tan, a 35-year-old Chinese national and US legal permanent resident, pleaded guilty to theft of a trade secret, unauthorized transmission of a trade secret, and unauthorized possession of a trade secret in federal court on February 11, 2020.

Tan stole the information from a US-based petroleum company regarding the manufacture of a 'research and development downstream energy market product' that is worth $1 billion.

'Tan's guilty plea continues to fill in the picture of China's theft of American intellectual property,' said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.

'China's economic aggression poses a threat to America's emerging high-technology industries. Industrial spies like Hongjin Tan engage in espionage to steal American trade secrets and intellectual property born out of the innovation that is innate in our free market system,' said US Attorney Trent Shores for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Tan was employed as an associate scientist for the US petroleum company starting in June 2017 until his arrest in December 2018. The defendant was assigned to work within a group at the company with the goal of developing next generation battery technologies for stationary energy storage, specifically flow batteries.

On December 11, 2018, Tan used a thumb drive to copy hundreds of files. He subsequently turned in his resignation and was escorted from the premises on December 12, 2018. Later that day, he returned the thumb drive, claiming that he had forgotten to do so before leaving his employer's property.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/chinese-national-pleads-guilty-committing-theft-trade-secrets