Engineer pleads guilty of stealing trade secrets of Apple Car
Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple employee who was accused of stealing trade secrets about the company's self-driving car project, has pleaded guilty. He reached a plea agreement with the US government, according to court filings. The deal is, however, under seal. Zhang was arrested by federal agents at the San Jose airport in 2018 on his way to China.
Why does this story matter?
In the electronic industry, schematics for circuit designs are considered one of the most valuable things. Its value manifolds when it belongs to a project that is yet to be out in the open. The increased competition between American and Chinese companies has led to an increase in corporate espionage cases. Losing the data would have been disastrous to Apple's self-driving car dreams.
Zhang could be awarded a prison sentence of 10 years
According to his indictment, Zhang pled guilty to a single count of theft of trade secrets in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1832(a)(1). His sentencing is scheduled for November 14. As per the US, the felony of trade secrets theft can be punished with a maximum penalty of 10 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
What did Zhang steal?
Zhang worked in Apple's secretive self-driving car division from 2015-2018. Specifically, he designed and tested circuit boards. He was accused of stealing a 25-page document containing schematics of a circuit board for an autonomous vehicle. He was also accused of taking reference manuals and PDFs describing the company's prototypes. Apple found that he transferred around 24GB of data to his wife's laptop via AirDrop.
How did Zhang get caught?
In April 2018, Zhang informed his supervisor that he was resigning and moving to China. He also said that he plans to work for a Chinese EV start-up called Xiaopeng Motors of Xpeng. His evasive nature during the meeting invited doubts. Upon further investigation, Apple's security team found several suspicious activities by Zhang. When confronted, he admitted to stealing data.
FBI arrested Zhang from San Jose International Airport in July
Zhang was terminated from Apple in May. In the same month, the company informed the FBI about its findings. The agency questioned him in June. He admitted to the FBI the same things he told Apple. In July, the FBI found out that he bought a ticket to Beijing. He was arrested after he passed through the security checkpoint at San Jose International Airport.
Another Apple employee was charged with corporate espionage in 2019
Zhang is not the only person who has been accused of stealing trade secrets from Apple or trying to transfer the same to Xpeng. Another Apple employee, Jizhong Chen, is also facing charges for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the company's EV project in 2019. Tesla has accused an employee of transferring information related to its autopilot system to Xpeng.
