A former engineer, Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, has been arrested on federal charges for allegedly stealing trade secret technology developed by the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, according to an announcement by the Justice Department on Wednesday. Gong, originally from China and a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2011, faced accusations of theft of trade secrets following his arrest on Tuesday morning.
Gong appeared in court on Wednesday, where he was granted release on a $2.5 million bond. Conditions of his release include location monitoring and a curfew, as per a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. Represented by a deputy federal public defender during the court hearing held in San Jose, Gong has been instructed to appear in court in Los Angeles by February 20, with uncertainty regarding his legal representation for the upcoming hearing, the spokesperson added.
The Justice Department alleges that Gong, during a brief employment stint at a Los Angeles-area research and development company from March 30 to April 26, transferred over 3,600 files from his work laptop to personal storage devices. Some of these files were reportedly found on devices seized from Gong's temporary residence in Thousand Oaks, California. Moreover, Gong is accused of transferring more than 1,800 files after accepting a new job at a main competitor of the company on April 5, as revealed by the Justice Department. The stolen files are said to contain blueprints for sophisticated infrared sensors intended for space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches, along with designs for sensors enabling U.S. military aircraft to detect and counter incoming heat-seeking missiles, the department disclosed, citing court documents
SOURCE: VOA NEWS | FEBRUARY 12 2024
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