LOS ANGELES — A former engineer at a Southern California company has admitted to stealing U.S. trade secret technologies intended to detect nuclear missile launches, track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and to allow U.S. fighter planes to detect and evade heat-seeking missiles.
Chenguang Gong, 59, of San Jose, California, who is a dual citizen of the U.S. and China, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of theft of trade secrets, federal Justice Department officials said in a statement. He remains free on $1.75 million bond.
U.S. District Judge John Walter scheduled sentencing for Sept. 29. Gong faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The intended economic loss from Gong’s criminal conduct exceeds $3.5 million, according to his plea agreement.
Prosecutors said Gong transferred more than 3,600 files from a Los Angeles-area research and development company where he worked to personal storage devices during his brief tenure with the company last year.
The files Gong transferred include blueprints for sophisticated infrared sensors designed for use in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, according to his plea agreement.
They also include blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures, including by jamming the missiles’ infrared tracking ability.
Some of these files were later found on storage devices seized from Gong’s temporary home in Thousand Oaks, California.
In January 2023, the victim company hired Gong as an application-specific integrated circuit design manager. In that role, he was responsible for the design, development and verification of its infrared sensors.
Beginning on March 30, 2023, and continuing until his termination on April 26, 2023, prosecutors said Gong transferred thousands of files from his work laptop to three personal storage devices, including more than 1,800 files after he had accepted a job at one of the victim company’s main competitors.
Many of the files Gong transferred contained proprietary and trade secret information related to the development and design of a readout integrated circuit that allows space-based systems to detect missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. They also contained a readout integrated circuit that allows aircraft to track incoming threats in low visibility environments.
Gong also transferred files containing trade secrets relating to the development of “next generation” sensors capable of detecting low observable targets while demonstrating increased survivability in space, as well as the blueprints for the mechanical assemblies used to house and cryogenically cool the victim company’s sensors.
“This information was among the victim company’s most important trade secrets that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” DOJ officials said in their statement.
Many of the files had been marked “[VICTIM COMPANY] PROPRIETARY,” “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” “PROPRIETARY INFORMATION,” and “EXPORT CONTROLLED.”
Investigators also found that between approximately 2014 and 2022, while employed at several major technology companies in the U.S., Gong submitted numerous applications to “Talent Programs” administered by the People’s Republic of China.
The Chinese government uses talent programs to identify people with expert skills, abilities, and knowledge of advanced sciences and technologies, so they may help boost China’s economy and its military capabilities, prosecutors said.
In 2014, while employed at a U.S. information technology company headquartered in Dallas, Gong sent a business proposal to a contact at a high-tech research institute in China focused on both military and civilian products.
In his proposal, translated from Chinese, Gong described a plan to produce high-performance analog-to-digital converters like those produced by his employer, prosecutors said.
In another Talent Program application from September 2020, Gong proposed to develop “low light/night vision” image sensors for use in military night vision goggles and civilian applications.
Gong’s proposal included a video presentation that contained the model number of a sensor developed by an international defense, aerospace, and security company where Gong worked from 2015 to 2019, prosecutors said.
Gong travelled to China several times to seek Talent Program funding in order to develop sophisticated analog-to-digital converters.
Prosecutors said in his Talent Program applications, Gong underscored that the high-performance analog-to-digital converters he proposed to develop in China had military applications, explaining that they “directly determine the accuracy and range of radar systems” and that “[m]issile navigation systems also often use radar front-end systems.”
In a 2019 email, translated from Chinese, Gong remarked that he “took a risk” by traveling to China to participate in the Talent Programs “because [he] worked for…an American military industry company” and thought he could “do something” to contribute to China’s “high-end military integrated circuits,” according to prosecutors.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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