I theorize that this is because academia is grounded not in a culture of ownership, but of openness and sharing. Unlike in the corporate arena, there are fundamental questions surrounding the feasibility of prosecuting espionage in the university context. Even one district court judge in granting a lighter sentence to one professor observed that contrary to the prosecution’s framing, the case was not one of espionage. Most telling, although labelled as spies, not one of the professors was actually charged with economic espionage. Yet, my investigation and analysis of these cases reveals much ambiguity about the very concept of academic economic espionage. Since 2019, over a dozen high profile criminal prosecutions have put prominent professors at major research universities across the country in handcuffs and almost all the professors have been convicted of a crime. This geopolitical concern about espionage has had real world and personal consequences in academia. The DOJ’s grave concerns about espionage in academia have continued, and even more recently the Director of the FBI has lamented that American taxpayers are footing the bill for China’s technological development. In doing so, Judge Fogel became the first judge in the country to sentence a defendant convicted under the rarely-used Economic Espionage Act.In 2018 then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that Chinese espionage was occurring in university research labs, and the Department of Justice subsequently made it a high priority to prosecute economic espionage in academia. Although the statutory maximum for the economic espionage count to which he pleaded guilty is 15 years in prison, Meng’s plea agreement with the government, in which he pleaded guilty to 2 of the 36 counts of the indictment, recommended a maximum sentence of 24 months’ imprisonment.Īt the sentencing hearing, Judge Fogel imposed the 24-month maximum under the plea deal, emphasizing the need to deter others who would consider stealing and selling American technology and jeopardizing national security. § 1832), and the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. § 1831), the Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. The United States government charged Meng with misappropriating Quantum3D’s trade secrets without authorization and attempting to export them from the United States to China in violation of various federal laws including, among others, the Economic Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. The government charged that Meng then traveled to China and made a presentation and demonstration to various foreign governments and officials, including the Royal Thai Air Force, the Royal Malaysian Air Force, and government entities and military contractors of the People’s Republic of China, using Quantum3D’s products, modified to seem like they belonged to Orad. Upon ending both his employment and consulting relationship with Quantum3D, Meng took a position with Orad, a direct competitor of Quantum3D in China. As part of his employment, Meng signed an “Employee Proprietary Information Agreement” acknowledging his obligation to return Quantum3D’s information, documents and other property to the company at the end of his employment. Among the products to which Meng had access were “Mantis,” a product used to visually simulate motions and three-dimensional scenes for training and other purposes, and “viXsen,” a visual simulation software program using for training military fighter pilots using thermal imaging (night vision) equipment. In that capacity, he had access to various trade secrets belonging to Quantum3D, a producer of hardware and software components for simulation systems for commercial and military customers. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose today imposed a 24-month prison sentence on Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, who pleaded guilty to possessing night vision software for pilots belonging to Quantum3D, his former employer, and using that information in a sales demonstration to Chinese naval officials.Īccording to the indictment, Meng was employed by Quantum3D in various systems engineering and analysis positions, and later as a consultant to Quantum3D.
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