TEXAS
A man was convicted Monday by a federal jury in Washington D.C. of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, according to authorities.
Following a nine-day trial, Shan Shi, 54, of Houston, Texas, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets.
Sentencing has been set for Oct. 25, according to officials.
Shi was originally indicted in June 2017 for conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, and a superseding indictment containing one count of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering charges issued in April 2018. Shi was acquitted on the other charges.
“Shan Shi and his coconspirators went to great lengths to cash in on the Chinese government’s desire to obtain syntactic foam technology,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “
“The jury’s verdict makes clear that Shan Shi conspired to steal trade secrets by poaching employees from a U.S. company and enticing them to bring technical data to his company,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “He did this against the backdrop of China’s strategic plan to close the gap between China and United States in buoyancy technology and with the benefit of millions of dollars of funding from China. Like our many other prosecutions implicating China’s economic aggression, this case exemplifies both the threat to American companies and our commitment to confront it.”
“FBI Houston’s elite counterintelligence investigators worked for years to dismantle Mr. Shi’s prolific network and bring him to justice,” said Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI’s Houston Field Office.
Evidence introduced at trial established that Shi conspired with others to steal trade secrets from a Houston-based company, Trelleborg Offshore, relating to syntactic foam, a strong, lightweight material with commercial and military uses that is essential for deep-sea oil and gas drilling.
In public statements of its national priorities, China has made clear its desire to develop this technology.
Shi sought to obtain information about syntactic foam for the benefit of CBM-Future New Material Science and Technology Co. Ltd. (CBMF), a Chinese company based in Taizhou, and for the ultimate benefit of the People’s Republic of China.
Four of Shi’s codefendants—some of whom worked at Trelleborg—had pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal trade secrets, and two testified as cooperating witnesses at trial.
From 2014 to 2017, CBMF sent Shi’s company in Houston approximately $3.1 million from China in order to promote Shi’s activity in the United States.
DOJ NOTED:
The FBI’s Houston Field Office conducted the investigation.
Senior Counsel Joss Nichols of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Pearlman and Luke Jones for the District of Columbia are prosecuting the case.