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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)."
valued at between $50 million and $100 million
That's probably an inflated value. When companies get burned like this, they generally vastly overstate the value of the stolen goods.
and shared them with his new employer: the Chinese division of a US rival of Ford's.
Hello boys and girls. Can you say "tip of the iceberg?" I knew you could.
He faces five to six years in prison and a $150,000 fine (PDF).
Good. And before we judge if that seems too harsh a punishment, I would ask if anyone knows what the Chinese government would do to an American engineer who did the same thing to a Chinese company.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
The FBI seized his Beijing Automotive-issued laptop, and an analysis found 41 stolen Ford specification documents on the hard drive.
Dear "Mike",
When you get out, and if you decide to again play industrial spy, try this
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
have bad power steering pumps and short life torque converters from now on?
(sorry, had to go there, the problems I've had to deal with on my own/families/friends Fords the most)
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Are you real asking why is theft illegal?
or V6 engines that die prematurely due to head gasket failure?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Small potatoes
"Lopez was head of purchasing for GM and defected abruptly to VW in 1993. GM accused Lopez of masterminding the theft of more than 20 boxes of documents on research, manufacturing and sales. The world's largest international corporate espionage case officially ended in 1997, when VW admitted no wrongdoing but settled the civil suit by agreeing to pay GM $100 million in cash and spend $1 billion on GM parts over seven years.
Advice: on VPS providers
> It's not theft. It's breach of trust.
According to the press release (also linked above), it's theft of trade secrets:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/mie/press/2010/2010-11-17_xyu.pdf
I assume it's also a breach of his employment contract. (Which would be relevant to a civil case by Ford against him.)
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Ford's been doing better. Over the last decade, they've built up some engineer teams in Europe (is it flamebait to say they are better because they are away from US unions?) who really are doing top notch work. The Fusion, for example, ranked #1 in its category for reliability. The Mustang has 300 horsepower at 30 MPG. I own a Honda, but if Ford continues the direction they're going, my next car may well be a Ford. Now if only they would do something about that horrid logo.....
Qxe4
Seems to me it's an internal problem within Ford that they trusted untrustworthy people.
I suppose you have a magic solution that tells who is trustworthy and who is not? Are you selling any such snake oil? There are several different ways to reduce the problem, but until there is some kind of deep brain scan that can learn the thoughts and motivations of a person, I don't think there is even a shot at eliminating the risk of hiring untrustworthy people. And even then, an employer that uses that is probably not an employer that many people would want to work for.
It was $1.92M for 24 songs so $80,0000. Using the same ratio - $50M * 80,000 = $4 trillion. It seems fair. We should apply that judgement against China and take one of their provinces as settlement.
When trade secrets are involved it's called theft, not copyright infringement.
"Theft" is when the original owner is deprived by the action. In this case, the trade secrets were stolen, because the original owner was deprived of the secret (as its not secret any more).
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
This story come right on the heals of that other slashdot story: "Malaysian Indicted After Hacking Federal Reserve."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/22/1446256/Malaysian-Indicted-After-Hacking-Federal-Reserve
I guess US companies are saving a bundle by putting so much trust in foreign nationals.
These two stories are hardly unique.
Sure, offshoring jobs has ruined the careers, and lives, of countless Americans, but look at the money that the US companies are saving!
When I was working at a defense contractor, they would tell us in training about industrial espionage being a huge problem. And not just by other companies.
I would surmise that most American companies are blissfully unaware about the threat they face.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
The U.S. Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which became effective on January 1, 1997, makes theft or misappropriation of trade secrets a federal crime.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
When the head gasket failure results in large quantities of coolant going into the oil followed by rapid failure of the main bearings, yes. You will see from the linked page that the repair bills from these failed head gaskets could be up to $4000. It was a common problem on Ford V6s built during the '90s.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Let's see 1997 Taurus 225k miles, 2001 Taurus 250k miles, 2001 Sable only 185k miles so far. Of course the common thread is all three had the Duratec V6, one of the best engines ever made. It helps to do your homework =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Or he'd REALLY get nailed, not the slap on the wrist he's getting1
This is how Chinese companies generally innovate, they steal the information so they don't have to invent it themselves. We were constantly trained to keep eyes out for people stealing confidential and classified information when I worked on some Air-force Systems. Even back then, we were told the greatest threat was people being bought out by the Chinese, the US government were already dealing with tons of them trying to steal military technology. They are so far behind, they would generally do anything to try and close the gap, since they couldn't invent it quick enough themselves.
I vote for Hong Kong.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
- hard at work stealing our information and creative processes. People (that includes politicians + CEOs) just tend to forget that China is not some quaint country that has rules of law and enforces those laws. This is a state run government and economy - anything goes to enrich the state and acrue power. We've already sent most of our production machines over there - now they are coming back to collect any intellectual property they can grab as well.
They are starting to eat our lunch and will shortly just take our lunch money
And contrary to some comments -- Ford makes some damn fine vehicles -- I dearly miss my 2001 F-150 4x4 - great truck
Its not the years, its the mileage
>>Europe (is it flamebait to say they are better because they are away from US unions?)
Probably yes, because:
1) Workers in good old Europe have stronger unions than the withering joke the U.S. has.
2) European workers enjoy a terrific safety net which looks like the great wall of china compared to the spider web the U.S. wage slaves have. Never underestimate explosion of creativity in a geek who feels safe for economic future of his family.
Let me put it this way:
I work in a high technology company that makes a lot of software.
If our source code got into the hands of the competition, it would set them back a few decades.
They would run into so many bugs without knowing the 'workarounds' (or just flat out what to avoid), they wouldn't know what hit them.
Considering the crap that American car companies design, I think the Chinese are probably just trying to figure out what NOT to do.
"five to six years in prison and a $150,000 fine"
Can you imagine how awfully unbalanced it would seem if people got lesser sentences for causing death by dangerous driving?
Returning home, outside US jurisdiction? Just wondering.
Gotta love those non-compete agreements. The employer can harass you to the end of the earth for simply trying to get a job after being laid off (even if you have no access to "secrets" at all). Meanwhile, if you take a boatload of top-secret material offshore, all they can do is shrug their shoulders and have the legal department send a few nastygrams.
That Ford and its competitors have stolen significantly more information than that from independent inventors, small firms, employees, etc. Call it stealing or not, but making millions-billions on others work is immoral and stealing in my book, even if you make them sign something to let you.
Where is the mod rating for "scary"? Also,