Grand Jury Indicts 2 for Espionage

Techies accused of attempted sale of microchips to China
By Zach Samalin,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2007 3:17 PM CDT

Lan Lee and Yuefei Ge, both of California, were indicted Wednesday by a grand jury on two counts each of economic espionage, conspiracy and theft of trade secrets. The former employees of chip maker Netlogics Microsystems allegedly downloaded chip tech plans onto their home computers, intending to start their own company backed by Chinese money, PCWorld reports.

According to the indictment their new business, working with a Chinese venture capital firm, planned to develop and sell chips based on the stolen designs. They also hoped to attract additional investment from Chinese government-backed seed funds, created to boost tech development in that country. Lee is an American citizen, Ge a Chinese national. (More espionage stories.)

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