A federal grand jury in Rochester has charged a New York man with economic espionage, theft of trade secrets and viiolating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Federal prosecutors say 59-year-old Ji Wang worked on a fiber laser research project for DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It produced a thousand-fold power increase for fiber lasers and much new technical daata on how to make the lasers. That information was protected as a trade secret, but prosecutors say Wang copied the files five years ago, with the intent of establishing his own fiber laser business using the secret information. Wang and another person were negotiating with China to set up their company there. That's when federal officials say he illegally exported the protected technical data.
Ultimately, Wang's attempt to set up his business in China wasn't successful. He then negotiated with a U.S. citizen to provide startup capital. During those discussions, he revealed that he was using DARPA's research, and federal agencies were notified.
Wang made his first court appearance today. If convicted he faces up to a $5 million fine and 20 years in prison.