圣贝纳迪诺县男子 Liming Li 承认非法持有原雇主商业秘密
2025年2月27日，美国司法部中加州区联邦检察官办公室宣布，住在加利福尼亚州圣贝纳迪诺县兰乔库卡蒙加（Rancho Cucamonga）市的 Liming Li（音译李黎明，66岁）当天承认一项非法持有商业秘密罪。他承认把原雇主的专有信息下载到个人设备、在被解雇后未归还，并用这些信息经营自己的公司、为一家中国公司工作。
根据认罪协议，Liming Li 在1996年至2013年间在一家位于南加州的公司任职，该公司在法庭文件中被称为「美国一号公司」，专门从事精密测量仪器与计量技术设备，产品包括千分尺、卡尺、三坐标测量机与光学测量系统。他先任高级软件工程师，后任项目经理；2013年至2018年，他在该公司的全资子公司任首席技术专家。在两处任职期间，他参与了该公司一款软件程序源代码的开发，该源代码被公司视为专有信息。
认罪协议写明，2013年7月，Liming Li 与该公司签了员工手册与保密协议，须交还属于公司的全部文书、记录、文件、技术、商业秘密与含专有信息的数据，且未经书面许可不得复制公司专有信息。他承认，自己曾不时未经许可把公司专有信息下载到个人设备上；2018年1月被子公司解雇后，他没有归还属于原雇主的全部专有信息。
2018年2月，Liming Li 经营一家名为 JSL Innovations Inc. 的咨询公司。2020年3月，他与苏州环球集团科技公司签了雇佣协议，该公司是一家总部在中国的链条与轴承制造商；他为该公司工作至2023年5月被捕。司法部说，在这段时间里，他持续知情持有原雇主的专有信息，并不止一次在未经原雇主授权的情况下访问这些信息。他承认，自己是为自身经济利益使用这些专有信息，并明知此举会损害原雇主的利益。
联邦检察官办公室代理联邦检察官 Joseph T. McNally 说：「保护美国公司的敏感知识产权，对我们国家在全球经济中取得成功至关重要。被告窃取知识产权，是为了让中国的公司受益。窃取专有信息损害我们的经济安全，本办公室将积极起诉从事这类行为的人。」联邦调查局洛杉矶外勤办公室助理局长负责人 Akil Davis 说，Li 的贪婪使他被一家中国公司利用，而不顾此举对美国经济与国家安全的负面影响；FBI 清楚中国正积极且快速地窃取美国知识产权，像 Li 这样自愿交出这些信息、且现已承认的人，将面临严重后果。
联邦地区法官 John A. Kronstadt 已定于2025年5月8日对 Liming Li 量刑，他面临的法定最高刑是联邦监狱10年。此案由联邦调查局调查，商务部工业与安全局出口执法办公室提供了大量协助；案件是在司法部与商务部共同牵头的「颠覆性技术打击力量」框架下提出的，该机制旨在反制敌对民族国家非法获取美国敏感技术。案件由助理联邦检察官 Aaron B. Frumkin、Solomon D. Kim 与司法部国家安全司的 David T. Ryan 负责公诉。
（来源：美国司法部）
Inland Empire Man Liming Li Pleads Guilty to Possessing Trade Secrets Belonging to U.S. Employer
On February 27, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced that Liming Li, 66, of Rancho Cucamonga, a city in San Bernardino County, California, pleaded guilty that day to one count of possession of trade secrets. Li admitted that he downloaded his employers' proprietary information onto his personal devices, failed to return it after he was fired, and used it to market his own company and to work for a company based in China.
According to his plea agreement, from 1996 to 2013 Li worked for a Southern California-based business identified in court documents as "U.S. Company #1," which specialized in precision measuring instruments and metrological technology and equipment, designing and selling products such as micrometers, calipers, coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and optical measurement systems. Li worked there as a senior software engineer, then as a program manager. From 2013 to 2018, he worked as chief technologist at a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Company #1. During his employment at both, Li worked on the development of the source code for one of the company's software programs, which was considered its proprietary information.
In July 2013, Li signed an employee handbook and confidentiality agreement that required him to turn over all writings, records, files, technology, trade secrets and data containing any proprietary information belonging to the company, and that prohibited him from copying the company's proprietary information without written permission. Li admitted in his plea agreement that he occasionally downloaded the company's proprietary information onto his personal devices without permission, and that he failed to return all the proprietary information after the subsidiary terminated him in January 2018.
In February 2018, Li operated a consulting company named JSL Innovations Inc. In March 2020, he signed an employment agreement with Suzhou Universal Group Technology Co. Ltd., a China-based chain-and-bearing manufacturer, and continued to work for Suzhou Universal until his arrest in May 2023. During this period, the Justice Department said, Li continued to knowingly possess U.S. Company #1's proprietary information and, more than once, accessed it without the company's authorization. He admitted that he used the proprietary information for his own economic benefit and that it would injure U.S. Company #1's interests.
"Protecting U.S. companies' sensitive intellectual property is critical to our country's success in a global economy," said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. "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." Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said Li's greed allowed him to be used by a Chinese company without regard for the negative implications for the economy or national security of the United States, and that those who willingly hand over American intellectual property, as Li has done and now acknowledged, will face serious consequences.
United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 8, 2025, at which Li will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The FBI investigated the matter, with substantial assistance from the Department of Commerce's Office of Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security. The case was brought under the auspices of the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, co-led by the Departments of Justice and Commerce, which seeks to counter efforts by hostile nation-states to illicitly acquire sensitive U.S. technology. Assistant United States Attorneys Aaron B. Frumkin and Solomon D. Kim and David T. Ryan of the National Security Division are prosecuting the case.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：联邦调查局总部胡佛大楼（资料图，ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0）；本案由联邦执法部门调查、加州中区联邦检察官办公室起诉。 / Photo: FBI headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building (file photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0); the case was investigated by federal law enforcement and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
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