Former Employee Stole Ford Secrets Worth $50 Million

chicksdaddy writes "A ten year veteran of US automaker Ford pleaded guilty in federal court on November 17 to charges that he stole company secrets, including design documents, valued at between $50 million and $100 million, and shared them with his new employer: the Chinese division of a US rival of Ford's. Xiang Dong ('Mike') Yu admitted to copying some 4,000 Ford Documents to an external hard drive, including design specifications for key components of Ford automobiles, after surreptitiously taking a job with a China-based competitor in 2006. Yu, who took a job for Beijing Automotive Company in 2008, was arrested during a stopover at Chicago in October, 2009. The FBI seized his Beijing Automotive-issued laptop, and an analysis found 41 stolen Ford specification documents on the hard drive. He faces five to six years in prison and a $150,000 fine (PDF)."

Comments

Re:Wake up, people.

[cusco]

I'm just mystified what documents Ford might have possibly produced that could be worth more than a couple million. Any advanced technology that they use is licensed from someone else, their vehicles differ only slightly from any other mediocre vehicle on the road, their mileage and durability is below average. Only their marketing is better than some of the competition, and they contract that out.