Former Ford Employee Charged With Trade Secret Theft

According to the FBI press release, Yu was charged with theft of trade secrets, attempted theft of trade secrets and unauthorized access to a protected computer. Yu is a Chinese national and has been living in China since 2007.

Yu worked for Ford from 1997-2007 as a Product Engineer. His job gave him access to Ford trade secrets. These secrets included design documents.

The charges against Yu, alleges he copied sensitive Ford design documents onto an external hard drive. Yu is being accused of taking these documents with him to China in the effort to secure employment with Chinese automotive companies starting in June 2005.

In 2006, Yu allegedly downloaded over 4,000 more documents from Ford. He accepted a job from Foxconn PCE's facility in Shenzhen, China in December 2006.

It was not until January 2007 that Yu told Ford about his new job. Since then he has used the stolen information to try to obtain another job that he did not get in 2008. Yu did accept a job with Beijing Automotive Co. Beijing is a rival of Ford.

If convicted, Yu could face years in jail and large monetary fines. The theft and attempted theft of trade secrets charges each carry a 10 year maximum prison sentence and $250,000 fine. The charge for unauthorized access to a protected computer carries a 5 year max and $250,000 fine.

Ford spent years and millions of dollars developing the trade secrets that Yu allegedly stole. Yu has a detention hearing on October 20th.

Written by Denise Clay
Hickory, NC
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