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Ex-Boeing Employee Convicted Of Spying for Chinese
An ex-Boeing Co. employee and Orange resident was convicted by the U.S. court on spying for the People’s Republic of China and stealing technology and trade secrets since the 1970s. China-born Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 73 and a U.S. citizen has been found guilty of stealing trade secrets from Boeing and selling them to China.
The former employee of the defense and space unit of Rockwell International Corp., which was taken over by Boeing in 1996 was convicted of multiple counts of economic espionage. He retired from Boeing in 2002 and worked as a consultant until 2006. The U.S. Department of Justice had charged him with economic espionage and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the People’s Republic of China. His trial was billed as the first economic espionage trial in the U.S.
“The trust Boeing placed in Mr. Chung to safeguard its proprietary and trade secret information obviously meant very little to Mr. Chung,” said judge Cormac Carney. “He cast it aside to serve the PRC, which he proudly proclaimed as his motherland.”
Chung had been free on $250,000 bail during his California trail. His lawyer told that the information Chung provided China was publicly available. He was taken into custody on Thursday and he is expected to appeal the case. His sentencing is scheduled for November 9. Prosecutors could ask for a minimum of 15 to 20 years.