corporations, establishments, or persons, designed to unlawfully or clandestinely influence sensitive economic policy decisions or to unlawfully obtain sensitive financial, trade, or economic policy information proprietary economic information or critical technologies. “foreign power-sponsored or coordinated intelligence activity directed at the U.S. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines economic espionage as a: law enforcement.Economic espionage, corporate espionage, industrial espionage, commercial espionage: different commonly terms for the same general idea.Īccording to the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, legislated by the United States Congress, economic espionage is the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret with the intent or knowledge that the offence will benefit any foreign government, foreign instrumentality, or foreign agent.” HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. From approximately September 2017 through June 2018, You was employed as a packaging application development manager for Eastman, where she was one of a limited number of employees with access to trade secrets belonging to them. Because of her extensive education and experience with BPA and BPA-free coating technologies, she was one of a limited number of Coca-Cola employees with access to BPA-free trade secrets belonging to Akzo-Nobel, BASF, Dow Chemical, PPG, Toyochem, and Sherwin Williams. 31, 2017, You was employed as Principal Engineer for Global Research at Coca-Cola, which had agreements with numerous companies to conduct research and development, testing, analysis and review of various BPA-free technologies. As witnesses from the chemical and coating companies testified at trial, developing these BPA-free alternatives was a very expensive and time-consuming process.įrom December 2012 through Aug. However, due to BPA’s potential health risks, companies began searching for BPA-free alternatives. Until recently, BPA was used to coat the inside of cans and other food and beverage containers to help minimize flavor loss and prevent the container from corroding or reacting with the food or beverage contained therein. Those documents, and other presented evidence, showed her intent to benefit not only Weihai Jinhong Group, but also the governments of China, the Chinese province of Shandong, and the Chinese city of Weihai, as well as her intent to benefit the Chinese Communist Party. Documents related to her Thousand Talents Program application were admitted at trial. You and her Chinese corporate partner, Weihai Jinhong Group, received millions of dollars in Chinese government grants to support the new company (including a Thousand Talents Plan award). The stolen trade secrets belonged to major chemical and coating companies including Akzo-Nobel, BASF, Dow Chemical, PPG, Toyochem, Sherwin Williams, and Eastman, and cost nearly $120,000,000 to develop.Ĭourt documents and trial evidence showed that You stole the trade secrets to set up a new BPA-free coating company in China. You, was granted access to the trade secrets while working at The Coca-Cola Company (Coca Cola) in Atlanta, Georgia, and Eastman Chemical Company (Eastman) in Kingsport, Tennessee. Xiaorong You, aka Shannon You, 59, of Lansing, Michigan, stole valuable trade secrets related to formulations for BPA-free coatings for the inside of beverage cans. “HSI is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to help stop these illegal and deceptive practices that allow companies in other countries to profit by using stolen information that our companies have paid millions of dollars to develop.”Īccording to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dr. “Theft of trade secret and protected information from American companies poses a threat to our overall national and economic security,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Jerry C Templet, Jr.
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