Threat Management, Threat Intelligence

Engineer faces espionage charges after allegedly stealing source code

An engineer is facing economic espionage charges after allegedly attempting to sell proprietary source code stolen from his former employer.

Authorities said Xu Jiaqiang, 30, sold the stolen code, which originated from an American company, to undercover agents with the intent of benefiting a Chinese government agency, according to a June 14 Department of Justice press release.

Xu was initially arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in White Plains on Dec. 7, 2015, and had previously been charged with one count of theft of trade secrets.

Xu now faces three counts of economic espionage, each  of which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and  three counts of theft of a trade secret, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. 

Its unclear which company Xu worked for, however, Reuters reported that he was a former IBM software engineer.  

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