Ford Engineer Indicted for Trying to Sell Trade Secrets to Chinese Companies

October 15, 2009

Detroit, Michigan - Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday has filed a lawsuit against its former engineer for allegedly stealing company trade secrets and trying to sell these to several Chinese companies.

In its complaint-affidavit, Ford accuses Mike Yu, 47, of violating the trade secret laws by stealing company secrets and illegally accessing a protected computer.

The carmaker giant alleges that Yu, who was the company’s product engineer from 1997 to 2007, stole Ford’s patented technologies and product design in 2005 and went to China and shared these to several auto manufacturers, expecting to land a job.

However, Yu failed to get a new job in China and decided to go to California.

Ford alleged that Yu downloaded 4,000 documents from a protected computer and stole trade secrets such as electric power supply, electrical distribution system, engine design, and generic body module before resigning on January 2, 2007.

After presenting Ford’s trade secrets to Foxconn PCE Industry, a manufacturer of electronic equipment for cars and computers, Yu was immediately hired by the company, the indictment said.

After few months of working for Foxconn, Yu tried to get a new job from two Chinese companies, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and Beijing Automotive Corporation which are both Ford’s direct competitors.

Yu later accepted a job offer from Beijing Automotive, Ford said.

If proven guilty, he faces up to 45 years in prison.