In an indictment likely to ruffle relations with China, six men – including three professors at China s Tianjin University – have been charged with stealing a key technology from Silicon Valley tech company Avago and Massachusetts-based Skyworks Solutions.
The U.S. Attorney s Office in San Francisco Tuesday announced the indictment and the arrest May 16 of Tianjin University Prof. Hao Zhang, 36, a former Skyworks engineer, under the Economic Espionage and Theft of Trade Secrets Act. Also indicted but not in custody was Wei Pang, 35, who was an employee of Avago until 2009.
The U.S. Attorney s office in San Francisco said the six were involved in a long-running effort to obtain U.S. trade secrets for the benefit of universities and companies controled by PRC, or People s Republic of China. According to the indictment, one of the accused said that their objective was moving Avago to China.
The six allegedly conspired to steal confidential data from Avago – which is co-headquartered in San Jose and Singapore – and Skyworks for wireless smartphone technology called FBAR that sorts desired radio frequencies from undesired ones.
According to the indictment, Pang and Zhang are Chinese citizens who met at the University of California during their doctoral studies. Both men researched FBAR techology while studying at USC. After graduation, Pang was hired as an FBAR engineer at Avago s facility in Colorado and Zhang was hired as an FBAR engineer at Skyworks Solutions in Massachusetts.
The indictment alleges that officials from Tianjin University flew to San Jose in 2008 to meet with some of the defendants. The university then agreed to establish an FBAR fabrication facility in China, while while two defendants continued to work for Avago and Skyworks in close coordination with the university
In 2009, Pang and Zhang resigned from Avago and Skyworks and accepted posts as full professors at Tianjin University, which formed ROFS Microsystems, a joint venture with the two men that sought contracts to provide FBARs to commercial and military entities, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that Pang and Zhang and the other defendants stole recipes, source code, specifications, presentations, design layouts and other documents that were marked confidential and proprietary by the two companies. The stolen trade secrets enabled Tianjin University to build a state-of-the-art FBAR fabrication facility, the indictment states.
Others named in the indcitment are Jinping Chen, 41, a professor at Tianjin University; Huisui Zhang, 34; Chong Zhou, 26, a design engineer at ROFS Microsystems, and Zhao Gang, 39, general manager of ROFS Microsystems.
Zhang was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from mainland China. He appeared before a U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles Monday, who ordered him transported to San Jose. His next appearance is before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila.
The investigation was handled by the FBI s office in Palo Alto.
Photo from Associated Press
