On August 1, 2018, Xiaoqing Zheng was arrested for alleged theft of trade secrets belonging to General Electric (“GE”). Mr. Zheng, a graduate of MIT and an engineer who worked in the Power division of GE, is accused of stealing dozens of encrypted computer files related to turbine operation. In order to get the files out of the building, Mr. Zheng allegedly hid the data in the code for a picture of an “innocuous looking” sunset, which he then emailed to his personal email address. However, GE had been monitoring Mr. Zheng’s computer activity after it learned that he had downloaded 19,000 other files to an external hard drive. According to a company statement, GE had been in “close cooperation with the FBI for some time on this matter.” The statement continued, “At GE, we aggressively protect and defend our intellectual property and have strict processes in place for identifying these issues and partnering with law enforcement.” The FBI complaint alleges that Mr. Zheng was using the trade secrets to benefit an aeronautical company he owns in China. This isn’t an isolated incident. Just last month, China-based Sinovel Wind Group paid a $57.5 million dollar settlement related to stolen data regarding wind turbine technology that it took from Massachusetts-based technology company American Superconductor Inc.
