Tulsa, OK–Hongjin Tan, a 35 year old Chinese national and U.S. legal permanent resident, pleaded guilty today in federal court to committing theft of trade secrets from his employer, a U.S. petroleum company.
Tan pleaded guilty to theft of a trade secret, unauthorized transmission of a trade secret, and unauthorized possession of a trade secret. The defendant stole the information from a U.S.-based petroleum company regarding the manufacture of a “research and development downstream energy market product” that is worth more than $1 billion.
Tan was employed as an associate scientist for the U.S. petroleum company starting in June 2017 until December 2018. The defendant was assigned to work within a group at the company with the goal of developing next generation battery technologies for stationary energy storage, specifically flow batteries. In his plea agreement, Tan admitted to intentionally copying and downloading research and development materials without authorization from his employer.
On Dec. 11, 2018, Tan used a thumb drive to copy hundreds of files. He subsequently turned in his resignation and was escorted from the premises on Dec. 12, 2018. Later that day, he returned the thumb drive, claiming that he had forgotten to do so before leaving his employer’s property. Upon examination, it was discovered that there was unallocated space on the thumb drive, indicating five documents had previously been deleted. Investigators with the FBI searched Tan’s premises and found an external hard drive. They discovered that the same five missing files from the thumb drive had been downloaded to the hard drive. Tan maintained the files on a hard drive so he could access the data at a later date. Further accessing the material would have been financially advantageous for Tan but caused significant financial damage to his Oklahoma employer.
U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell presided over the plea hearing and set sentencing for Feb. 12, 2020.
