A man from San Bernardino County has entered a guilty plea for possessing trade secrets that belonged to his former employer in the U.S. and leveraging them for his own gain in association with a Chinese company. Liming Li, 66, from Rancho Cucamonga accepted one count of possession of trade secrets, as disclosed in a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California.
"The defendant here stole intellectual property in order to benefit companies in China. Stealing proprietary information undermines our economic security and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will aggressively prosecute individuals that engage in this conduct,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, pointed out the national security concerns, stating, "Mr. Li’s greed allowed him to be used by a Chinese company without regard for the negative implications to the economy or national security of the United States," the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California noted.
During his tenure at "U.S. Company #1," which spanned from 1996 to 2018 and specialized in precision measuring tools and technology, Li had a role in developing a software program's source code, information that was considered proprietary to the company. Despite signing a confidentiality agreement that restricted him from replicating the company's proprietary data, Li admitted to downloading the information onto personal devices and failing to return all of it following his termination in January 2018.
Li's employment history includes operating a consulting firm named JSL Innovations Inc. after leaving "U.S. Company #1", and later, in March 2020, aligning with Suzhou Universal Group Technology Co. Ltd., a company based in China. Despite his arrest in May 2023, Li confessed that he used the proprietary information for his own economic benefit, knowing it would injure "U.S. Company #1’s" interests, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California. United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt has scheduled Li’s sentencing for May 8, where he faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
