US engineers contact China before stealing missile technology

According to prosecutors, Gong, who lives in San Jose, California, is originally from China and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He was arrested Tuesday and is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing later Wednesday.

Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Gong had previously tried to provide the People’s Republic of China with information useful to the military.

From 2014 to 2022, Gong was “employed by several major U.S. technology companies and one of the world’s largest defense contractors,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles. submitted multiple applications to the so-called “talent program.” The federal court argues.

The complaint notes that the Chinese Talent Program Tracker is known to identify individuals outside China with skills and knowledge that could help transform China’s economy and strengthen its military.

“In his submission to the Talent Program, Mr. Gong proposed projects that reflected his work at some of these companies, and that his suggestions would be beneficial to the Chinese military and that China would “The company repeatedly advertised that it did not yet have the technology to develop or develop the technology to take away market share from Chinese companies,” the complaint states.

“We know that foreign powers, including China, actively seek to steal our technology,” Estrada said in a statement. “But we remain committed to protecting the innovation of American companies and researchers. We will continue to be vigilant against this threat.”

The complaint alleges that Gong transferred more than 3,600 digital files to three personal storage devices from an unidentified research and development company in Malibu where he worked for just under four months early last year.

The files were transferred between March 30 and April 25, according to the complaint, and more than 1,800 of them were transferred after he accepted a job with one of the company’s major competitors in early April. It was transferred.

Much of the company’s infrared sensor technology development work is funded through contracts with the Department of Defense and other U.S. government contractors, according to the complaint.

“The files Gong allegedly transferred include blueprints for an advanced infrared sensor designed for use in space systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. ,” the Department of Justice said.

The ministry also said it contained “blueprints for a sensor designed to allow U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures, such as interfering with the missile’s infrared tracking capabilities.” .

Mr. Gong was responsible for managing the design and development of the company’s sensor readout integrated circuits.

Many of the files he allegedly transferred were “proprietary,” “for official use only,” and “export-controlled,” according to the complaint.

The company fired Mr. Gong in late April after searching his office in response to network activity and discovering a flash drive containing transferred files.

“The victim company then interviewed Mr. Gong, who gave vague and contradictory answers, but ultimately transferred files from his work laptop to his personal drive and transferred the files to his personal drive. “He admitted that he viewed the information on his computer,” the complaint states.

Gong started working for another company on May 1, but was fired nine days later after the victim company alerted the other company to information about his file transfers.

Some of the files Gong allegedly stole were discovered by investigators at his home last year, according to the complaint.