Ex-GM Engineer Found Guilty of Sharing Trade Secrets

A former General Motors engineer along with her husband have been found guilty of conspiring to sell GM trade secrets to Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co.

Shanshan Du was found guilty of conspiracy to possess trade secrets without authorization and two counts of unauthorized possession of trade secrets, though she was cleared on three counts of wire fraud. Her husband on the other hand was found guilty of all six charges, including a seventh charge of obstruction of justice.

Du left GM’s advanced technology group in March 2005, but not before copying thousands of internal documents onto an external hard drive.  The documents specifically had to do with General Motor’s hybrid technology, which Du planned to use in a joint venture with China’s Chery automobiles.

Though sentencing has not occurred yet, it is very likely that both will face jail time, and up to $250,000 in fines.

[Source: Reuters]