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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

A second Apple employee was charged with stealing self-driving car project secrets [theverge.com]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation accused an Apple employee, who is a Chinese citizen, of attempting to steal trade secrets related to the company's autonomous car project, according to a charging document that was unsealed on Wednesday. It's the second time the FBI has charged an Apple employee for trying to steal intellectual property related to the project in the last seven months. The news was first reported by NBC's Bay Area affiliate [nbcbayarea.com].

The new charge comes at a time of high tension between the United States and China. The two countries are locked in a trade war, and various US government agencies have accused China of engaging in multiple schemes — some dating back decades — to steal intellectual property from leading technology companies.

Jizhong Chen, a Chinese national, was charged with theft of trade secrets based on actions that allegedly date back to when he was hired last summer as a hardware developer. He was one of 5,000 Apple employees who was looped in on the company's self-driving car effort, known as "Project Titan," which has been operating in secret for years. (The company also recently laid off about 200 employees from the project [theverge.com].) Furthermore, he was also one of 1,200 "core" employees who directly work on the project. Chen was on the electrical engineering team, according to the charging document.

Previously: Apple Engineer Accused of Downloading Driverless Car Trade Secrets for Chinese Company [soylentnews.org]

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