Weiqiang Zhang, Theft of Engineered Rice, Kansas 2017

A Chinese scientist was sentenced to 121 months in a federal prison for conspiring to steal samples of a variety of rice seeds from a Kansas biopharmaceutical research facility.

Weiqiang Zhang, a 51-year-old Chinese national and U.S. legal permanent resident residing in Manhattan, Kan., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia in the District of Kansas.

Zhang was convicted on February 15, 2017, of one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.

The evidence at trial established that Zhang worked as a rice breeder for Ventria Bioscience in Junction City, Kansas.

Ventria develops genetically programmed rice to express recombinant human proteins, which are then extracted for use in the therapeutic and medical fields.

Zhang acquired without authorization hundreds of rice seeds produced by Ventria and stored them at his residence in Manhattan.

The rice seeds have a wide variety of health research applications and were developed to produce either human serum albumin, contained in blood, or lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein found, for example, in human milk.

Ventria spent millions of dollars and years of research developing its seeds and cost-effective methods to extract the proteins, which are used to develop lifesaving products for global markets.

Trial evidence demonstrated that in the summer of 2013, personnel from a crop research institute in China visited Zhang at his home in Manhattan.

Zhang drove the visitors to tour facilities in Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio.

On August 7, 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found seeds belonging to Ventria in the luggage of Zhang’s visitors as they prepared to leave the United States for China.

“Weiqiang Zhang betrayed his employer by unlawfully providing its proprietary rice seeds to representatives of a Chinese crop institute,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan.

“Today’s sentence demonstrates the significant consequences awaiting those who would steal trade secrets from American companies.

The FBI’s vigilance stopped Ventria’s intellectual property from leaving our country in the nick of time, but it was Ventria’s cooperation that allowed us to hold Zhang accountable for his crimes.”

The FBI’s Little Rock, Arkansas, Field Office and Kansas City, Missouri, Field Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas investigated the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ks/pr/chinese-scientist-sentenced-prison-theft-engineered-rice