CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge convicted a Chinese-born American of stealing trade secrets Wednesday but acquitted her of more serious charges of corporate espionage at a trial in Chicago that highlighted fears about China pilfering information from U.S. companies.
Software developer Hanjuan Jin was accused of spiriting away around 1,000 confidential documents from the Motorola Inc. office where she worked before heading to a Chicago airport with a one-way ticket to China.
As the slight, short-haired Jin stood before the judge’s bench — her hands folded in front of her — U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo told her the evidence showed she stole secrets but fell short of proving she did it on behalf of a foreign government or entity.
Later outside court, Jin’s attorney told reporters the convictions were disappointing but that the split verdict at least demonstrated his client, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was no agent of China.
“The acquittal acts as a full repudiation … that Ms. Jin was operating was some sort of spy,” John Murphy said, as Jin stood next to him without commenting.
Jin, 41, could have received up to 15 years in prison for each of three counts of economic espionage. Despite those acquittals, she still faces up to 10 years in prison for each of the three theft counts for which she was convicted.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who team led the prosecution, told reporters he always prefers a clean sweep of convictions. But he insisted a message was sent and that Jin would still pay a heavy price for her actions.
“When Ms. Jin went to a one-way ticket to China it was a one-way ticket to trouble for her,” he said.
The high-profile chief prosecutor said he wasn’t sure China would note the verdict, but he hoped U.S. companies would see they can report such crimes and not risk their trade secrets being revealed in court.
“If the Chinese government takes a lesson from this, that’d be great,” he said. “But I think we are trying to get the word out to potential people who would steal and the potential victims to come forward and work with us.”
Castillo allowed Jin to remain free while she awaits sentencing, which was set for April 18. But he ordered that she wear electronic monitoring and be confined to her home.
Authorities charged Jin after she was stopped during a random security search at O’Hare International Airport on Feb. 28, 2007, and found to be carrying $31,000 and the hundreds of Motorola documents, many stored digitally on a laptop computer, four external hard drives, thumb drives and other devices.
Prosecutors say the University of Notre Dame graduate who rose through Motorola’s ranks began downloading the files at her Chicago-area office after returning from an extended medical leave two days earlier.
In-court testimony at the November trial lasted less than a week, but the complexity of the case apparently kept Judge Castillo from ruling quickly. The hearing Wednesday lasted less than 30 minutes, the judge saying he would release a full written opinion.
During the trial, prosecutor Christopher Stetler told the court Jin “led a double life” as a seemingly loyal company worker who was actually plotting to steal her employer’s secrets.
Jin’s attorney, Beth Gaus, conceded her client violated Motorola policy by removing the documents. But she said Jin harbored no ill intent and merely grabbed the files to refresh her technical knowledge after her long absence from work.
But prosecutors say Jin began cooperating with a tech company in China while on her leave and that she understood that stolen information could end up with the Chinese military.
The conclusion of Jin’s bench trial at a federal courthouse in Chicago followed the recent release of a toughly worded U.S. intelligence report accusing China of systematically stealing American high-tech data to the detriment of the U.S. economy.
Before the November report from the U.S. Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, American officials responsible for tracking the theft of economic secrets hadn’t spoken as forcefully in public about their suspicions of China. Beijing has consistently rejected such accusations as baseless.
Out of seven cases related to the U.S. Economic Espionage Act in 2010, six were linked to China, the report said. It added that Chinese intelligence or companies bent on pilfering corporate secrets often seek out Chinese citizens or those with family ties to China.
During Jin’s trial, a key point of contention was the value of the documents she took.
Her lawyer, Gaus, told the judge the technology at issue, including a walkie-talkie type feature on Motorola cellphones, was far from cutting edge and would have been of little use to China’s military.
The defense also argued that Motorola did not take the kinds of precautions needed to secure the documents, and that this amounted to the company’s tacit admission that it didn’t regard them as vital.
The government’s attorney, however, said Motorola had imposed strict security measures, including setting computer passwords to strictly limit access to the documents.
 
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