The FBI recently arrested a senior software engineer on trade secrets charges. A resident of Libertyville, a northern suburb of Chicago, Chunlai Yang is a naturalized US citizen who has worked for Chicago-based CME group (“CME”) for 11 years. CME is a large financial company that runs exchanges for stocks, metals and agricultural goods, amongst other things. CME owns the Dow Jones indexes.
Yang wrote computer code for CME, but, starting back in May of this year, CME became suspicious of his activities and began monitoring what he did while using CME’s computers. CME discovered that Yang had downloaded thousands of files from the company’s servers to his personal computer. According to the indictment, Yang also copied some of these files to removable storage devices like flash cards and USB thumb drives. Most of the files pertained to vital CME operations. Information on protections that trade secrets law covers is available from a Los Angeles business litigation lawyer.
In reviewing Yang’s e-mails, the FBI determined that Yang had been in contact with an assistant director who runs a Chinese free trade zone in Zhangjiagang, the only free trade zone in mainland China. One e-mail to the director in particular contained CME source code and other confidential information. The federal government is charging Yang with one felony count of Theft of Trade Secrets. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is currently waiting in prison, as the judge refused to grant bail.
Klein Trial Lawyers – Los Angeles business litigation attorneys