Jeff Zhang, Lying to Customs Officials, Kansas 2026

State: Kansas
Category: Cybercrime
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ks/pr/aviation-company-employee-attempted-take-proprietary-information-china" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

Kansas City, Kan. – In a shocking case of intellectual property theft, Jeff Zhang, a 57-year-old senior material and process engineer from Tulsa, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty to lying to U.S. customs officials.

According to court documents, Zhang attempted to board a flight to China with proprietary information belonging to his employer, an aviation company in Wichita. The information, valued at more than $100,000, was marked ‘Proprietary’ and ‘Confidential’, and included graphs and blueprints associated with the aviation company’s work.

When Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents stopped Zhang at an airport in Dallas, Texas, in September 2019, he lied about having any work-related information on his electronic devices. However, when agents examined the devices, they discovered the sensitive documents.

Zhang’s employer had reported him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2018 after an incident during a work trip to China where he displayed suspicious behavior. The company informed the FBI that Zhang was not authorized to have confidential documents on his personal devices or to leave the country with that information.

‘Americans invest heavily into technological research and development,’ said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser. ‘Intellectual property theft causes U.S. companies across numerous sectors to lose billions of dollars a year. Often that cost ultimately falls on consumers.’

Zhang is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23, 2026. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

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