Wang and Bell Imaging Plead Guilty to Theft and Copying of Acuson Corporation
Trade Secrets
(April 26, 2001)
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California
announced that Junsheng Wang and Bell Imaging Technology Corporation
pled guilty today to theft and copying of the trade secrets of Acuson Corporation.
Mr. Wang, age 53, of Fremont, and Bell Imaging, a California corporation
based in Fremont, were charged in a criminal information filed in federal
court on April 19, 2001. Mr. Wang was charged with theft of trade secrets
in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1832(a)(1), and Bell
Imaging was charged with copying of trade secrets in violation of Title 18,
United States Code, Section 1832(a)(2). A related company, Belson Imaging
Technology Company Limited, a joint venture based in the People's Republic
of China, was also charged in the information with copying trade secrets,
and that charge remains pending.
In pleading guilty, Mr. Wang and Bell Imaging admitted that prior to August
24, 2000, Mr. Wang took without authorization and copied for Bell Imaging
a document providing the architecture for the Sequoia ultrasound machine that
contained the trade secrets of Acuson Corporation. According to Mr.
Wang's plea agreement, he had been able to obtain access to the Acuson trade
secret materials because his wife was employed as an engineer at that company
and because she had brought that document into their home. After Mr.
Wang had copied the document, he took it with him in the year 2000 on business
trips to the People's Republic of China for Bell Imaging. According to Bell
Imaging's plea agreement, it is a California corporation involved in the manufacture
and distribution of ultrasound transducers, and has been a partner with Henson
Medical Imaging Company, a Chinese company, in Belson Imaging Technology Company
Limited, the final defendant in this case. Mr. Wang was arrested carrying
the Acuson trade secret documents at San Francisco International Airport as
he was about to board a flight for Shanghai, P.R.C., in August of 2000.
The sentencings of Mr. Wang and Bell Imaging are scheduled for October 23,
2001, before Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose. The maximum statutory penalty
for each count in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1832
is 10 years and a fine of $250,000 for an individual and $5 million for a
corporation, plus restitution if appropriate. However, the actual sentences
will be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account
a number of factors, and will be imposed in the discretion of the Court.
The prosecutions are the result of an investigation by agents of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation with cooperation from agents of the United States
Customs Service. Joseph E. Sullivan is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who
prosecuted the case with the assistance of Lauri Gomez.
A copy of this press release and key court documents filed in the case may
also be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant
U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415)436-718, or Assistant U.S. Attorney
Elizabeth De La Vega at (408) 535-5061.
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