Former hardware engineer at Apple was arrested Saturday, July 7, at the San Jose International Airport while en route to China for stealing company trade secrets on its yet-to-be-unveiled driverless car project.
According to 9to5 Mac, Xiaolang Zhang, the ex-Apple personnel, was held off by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for the said charges where he could be facing 10 years imprisonment plus $250,000 fine.
The employee in question reportedly worked for the Cupertino-based tech giant back in December 2015 on its Project Titan as a hardware engineer.
As stated further in a court filing, Zhang was a member of the project's Compute Team. The committee oversees the design and testing of circuit boards analyzing a plethora of data taken from numerous vehicle sensors. This grant the accused unlimited access to the project's database, including sensitive intellectual property.
A report from Bloomberg stated that in April of this year, Zhang filed for a paternal leave following the birth of his child. Shortly after his visit to China, the engineer disclosed to his supervisor his plans to cut ties with the company for a Chinese-based tech startup called XMotors. The said tech firm also works on developing autonomous cars.
The court document further cited the Apple supervisor having grown suspicious towards Zhang after "feeling that he [Zhang] had been evasive."
Apple's New Product Security Division then launched an investigation to look into Zhang's network activity as well as his questionable number of visits to the office before his resignation.
Zhang told the FBI that he indeed downloaded sensitive files concerning the Project Titan into his wife's laptop. However, Apple's Digital Forensic Investigation team found out that the downloaded data was close to being unusable.
A spokesperson for the iPhone maker told Reuters that the company is serious in tackling down the problem at hand.
"Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of our intellectual property very seriously. We're working with authorities on this matter and will do everything possible to make sure this individual and any other individuals involved are held accountable for their actions."
