Liming Li, a 66-year-old man from San Bernardino County, California, was working in various engineering, management, and software development positions at a US company when he committed the act of stealing company trade secrets and collaborating with a Chinese company to further his own business endeavors. On Thursday, February 27, the Chinese-American man pleaded guilty in a California court.
Assistant United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally stated, “Protecting sensitive intellectual property of American companies is crucial for our country’s success in the global economy. The defendant stole intellectual property to benefit a Chinese company.”
McNally emphasized that the US Attorney’s Office will actively prosecute individuals engaged in such activities.
Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, commented, “The FBI is keenly aware that China (the CCP) is rapidly seeking and stealing American intellectual property, and individuals like Li who willingly surrender intellectual property, as he now admits, will face serious consequences.”
According to the plea agreement, Liming Li worked at a Southern California company from 1996 to 2013, serving as a senior software engineer and project manager. He later became the Chief Technology Officer of a subsidiary of the same company from 2013 to 2018. During this period, he was involved in the development of the company’s proprietary software source code, which was considered the company’s trade secret.
The company specialized in precision measuring instruments and technology, manufacturing products such as micrometers, calipers, Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs), and optical measurement systems. These technologies are commonly used for 3D modeling in sensitive manufacturing projects, including the production of components for nuclear submarines and military aircraft. Due to the military applications of these technologies, they are subject to US export controls, and federal law prohibits their export to China without permission.
Liming Li signed an employee handbook and a confidentiality agreement in 2013, promising to return all company proprietary information and not to copy this information without permission. However, he admitted to downloading company secrets onto personal devices without authorization and failing to return all information after being dismissed by the subsidiary in January 2018.
Subsequently, in February 2018, he founded his consulting company, JSL Innovations Inc., and signed an employment agreement with Suzhou Universal Group Technology Co. Ltd., located in China, in March 2020, until his arrest in May 2023. During this period, he knowingly possessed and repeatedly accessed proprietary information of US companies without authorization, using this information for his own financial gain while damaging the interests of his former employer.
In 2023, prosecutors expressed concern that more worrisome than Liming Li’s theft of trade secrets was his apparent desire for these secrets to benefit the Chinese Communist regime.
The subsidiary’s security department that dismissed Liming Li discovered that he had attempted to download files from the company system to a personal hard drive using a company-issued laptop. Subsequently, security personnel conducted a search of the laptop and found a folder labeled “ChinaGovernment”. Reportedly, the documents within this folder proved Li’s involvement in the CCP’s “Thousand Talents Program”, through which the CCP dispatches personnel worldwide to acquire key technologies and bring them back to China.
Additionally, the folder reportedly contained evidence indicating that Li provided services and stolen technology directly to CCP government entities in China. However, it remains unclear whether these were for civilian or military purposes.
Liming Li’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 8, where he could face a maximum of 10 years in federal prison. The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the US Department of Commerce’s Export Enforcement Office and falls under the purview of the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, aimed at preventing hostile nations from illegally obtaining sensitive US technology.