A federal grand jury has charged six Chinese citizens, including two professors, with economic espionage and the theft of trade secrets from two US tech companies.
According to an indictment, the individuals stole designs, specifications, code, and other confidential documents from Avago Technologies and Skyworks Solutions.
The group created a joint venture with China’s Tianjin University to produce film bulk acoustic resonators, a radio frequency filter that makes communication on cell phones and other wireless devices more secure. They then sold the technology to the Chinese military and commercial customers, according to the US government.
Hao Zhang, a 36-year-old Tianjin professor who previously worked at Skyworks, was arrested on May 16 at Los Angeles International Airport while traveling to speak at a conference. The remaining five are believed to be in China.
“The defendants leveraged their access to and knowledge of sensitive US technologies to illegally obtain and share US trade secrets with China for economic advantage,” assistant attorney general John Carlin said in a statement. “Economic espionage imposes great costs on American businesses, weakens the global marketplace, and ultimately harms US interests worldwide.”
Last May, a grand jury indicted five members of the Chinese military for breaching into the systems of and stealing trade secrets from American companies in the nuclear power, metals, and solar industries.
Photos: A ruptured pipeline dumped 21,000 gallons of oil on the California coastline
Heather Timmons
4 hours ago
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The oil-soaked shoreline at Refugio Beach Campground.(Noozhawk/Lara Ann Cooper)
Oil is washing ashore on beaches near Santa Barbara, California, after a nearby pipeline operated by Plains All-American Pipeline ruptured, spilling an estimated 21,000 gallons into the ocean.
Coast Guard officials said the spill stretches for about four miles. It was started when a pipeline that runs along highway 101 along the California coast ruptured at some point on May 19. Patches of oil pooled in a nearby field before it flowed down towards the sea. Here’s an aerial view from local news station KTLA:
The oil washed ashore in a sandy bay near Refugio Beach Campground in the afternoon, Noozhawk, a Santa Barbara area news website, reported.
An overhead picture from the US Coast Guard shows oil flowing into the ocean:
And officials photographed the oil washing up onto the rocky shore new the campground.
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The oil slick, as viewed from the shore.(Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)
Campers were wading through the spill, trying to capture oil-covered wildlife, Noozhawk said.
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Campers try to rescue an oil-covered bird on Refugio beach. It later swam back into the ocean.(Noozhawk/Lara Ann Cooper)
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Noozhawk/Lara Ann Cooper
Refugio beach and the adjoining campground were quickly closed. Santa Barbara officials warned that nearby El Capitan Beach may also be shut. Refugio is a popular camping spot, and was reportedly fully-booked for the coming Memorial Day weekend holiday.
Plains All-American has not yet commented on the spill.
A 1969 oil spill near Santa Barbara that left a hundred-mile slick of crude is widely cited as one of the key events that gave rise to the US environmental movement.
