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Husband and Wife Conspired to Steal GM Trade Secrets

Husband and Wife Conspired to Steal GM Trade Secrets


On November 30, 2012, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced that a former General Motors engineer and her husband planned to steal trade secrets on hybrid technology from GM.  They intended to use the secrets in a joint venture with a competitor in China.  


The woman’s name is Shanshan Du, and her husband’s name is Yu Qin.  They are from Troy, Michigan, and they were convicted and sentenced for unlawful possession of trade secrets.  Qin was also convicted of wire fraud and obstruction.  


According to trial evidence, the defendants conspired to steal the trade secrets from December 2003 to May 2006.  As Du was employed with GM’s hybrid vehicle technology group, she provided information on hybrid vehicles to her husband.  The trade secrets were used for their jointly owned company in China called Millennium Technology International Inc.  


Du copied over 16,000 GM files five days after receiving a severance agreement by GM.  Within months, Qin provided hybrid vehicle technology to a manufacturer and competitor of GM in China called Chery Automobile.  


A search warrant was executed in May 2006, and the FBI recovered large amounts of computer and electric evidence.  After the search warrant, the defendants drove to a dumpster behind a grocery store where they discarded bags of shredded documents with GM trade secret information.  


The husband and wife both face up to 10 years in prison on each trade secret count.  Qin also faces up to 30 years in prison for each wire fraud count and up to 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice charge.  They are scheduled for sentencing in February 2013.  


The FBI was in charge of the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cathleen Corkin, Michael Martin, and Linda Aouate were in charge of prosecution.  


Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation