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Trade Secret/Economic Espionage Cases - U.S. v. Wang (N.D. Cal.)



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Press Release
For Immediate Release
April 26, 2001
 

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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