Man charged
Chinese businessman allegedly stole trade secrets from General Electric.
The vice president of a Chinese semi-conductor company is facing federal charges in Albany for allegedly conspiring to steal trade secrets from General Electric worth millions of dollars.
Chi Lung Winsman Ng, 64, also known as Winsman Ng, was indicted in U.S. District Court on Thursday accused of stealing secrets involving the company’s silicon carbide metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors, known as MOSFETS, according to federal prosecutors in Albany.
The alleged scheme did not succeed. Federal authorities said there was no evidence that any Chinese company obtained the trade secrets .
The FBI, federal prosecutors and GE “coordinated closely and worked quickly to prevent that theft and the resulting damage to our economic security,” said Thomas Relford, FBI special agent in charge of the Albany field office said in a news release.
“Theft of trade secrets is a constant and dangerous threat to our American companies and the remarkable work they do to invent and manufacture unique technology that can change the world,” Relford said.
MOSFETS are described as tiny electrical switches that can turn on and off hundreds of times in a second. They can regulate power in items that range from electric cars and airplanes to wind turbines.
The case is in the Northern District because the alleged crime involved GE locations in at a Global
Research Center on Niskayuna and SUNY Polytechnic Insititute in Albany.
“Winsman Ng and his co-conspirators allegedly chose to steal what they lacked the time, talent or money to create,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers, of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, in a statement, “Theft of American intellectual property for the benefit of foreign firms deprives American companies of the fruits of their creativity and American workers of their jobs. The Department will do all it can to disrupt this illegal and economically destructive conduct.”
Ng was charged in an indictment that named an unidentified co-conspirator. In a recent case, Yang Sui, a research engineer, pleaded guilty to related charges last May in U.S. District Court. Sui admitted in his plea agreement that he stole numerous electronic files pertaining to the research, design, and manufacture of silicon carbide MOSFETS.
The Times Union reported at the time of his plea agreement that Sui engaged in the scheme while working at at GE’S lab at SUNY Poly. The school was part of the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium, which was a $500 million research program created by the state in 2014. GE put a $100 million investment to the consortium helping to establish a clean room manufacturing line at SUNY Poly where silicon carbide chips would be made into power electronics switches.
The indictment said in March 2017, Ng met with the co-conspirator in a restaurant within the Northern District of New York, which includes the Capital Region, to discuss their plan to launch a start-up company that would make and sell MOSFETS based on technology the co-conspirator stole and which he would continue to steal.
Over the next several months, the indictment states, the co-conspirator used his access to steal files that contained the trade secrets. The pair even discussed a Powerpoint presentation they would use to convince investors to fund their start-up.
The indictment said they met with a representatives of an accounting group in Hong Kong to incorporate their new venture in the British Virgin Islands under the name SPS Investment Holdings. It said they met with members of a Chinese investment firm and solicited $30 million in exchange for an ownership stale in their company.
The Times Union reported last May that GE uncovered the theft in December 2017 when it as it was winding down operations at SUNY Poly after it set up the manufacturing line. GE interviewed Sui that month and then took materials and electronic devices from SUNY Poly and his house. The FBI seized more computers and items from his house two days later.
“Our security systems and processes enabled us to detect this attempt, and due to the prompt action by GE and the FBI, there is no evidence intellectual property was transferred,” GE spokesman Todd Alhart said. “GE has been closely cooperating with the FBI for some time on this matter. At GE, we aggressively protect and defend our intellectual property and have processes in place for identifying these issues and partnering with law enforcement.”