For Klaus P., a former employee of a Canadian tech company, the conspiratorial meeting on Long Island apparently promised a lot of money. But instead of interested parties for suspected trade secrets Tesla The 58-year-old Canadian met undercover investigators on Tuesday – and was arrested.
P. wanted to negotiate a selling price for information at the meeting, US authorities said. A 47-year-old business partner of the man was also arrested, but was released a short time later.
Both suspects live in the Chinese city of Ningbo and are accused of having founded a company in the People’s Republic that will use technology stolen from the US car manufacturer Tesla to produce batteries. The two are said to have tried to sell the protected information, according to the federal prosecutor’s office new York. They are accused of conspiring to pass on trade secrets, which can be punished with up to ten years in prison if convicted.
Location also in Germany
According to the New York Times, the suspected economic spies had worked with the Canadian company Hibar Systems, which sold technology for battery production. It was acquired by Tesla in 2019. They had access to technical drawings and other documents related to the manufacturing process, the newspaper reported, citing to the prosecution. After the Hibar sale, the two men tried their luck with their own company and marketed the well-protected technology themselves – including on social media.
“The accused founded a company in China“Blatantly stole trade secrets from an American company that are important for the production of electric vehicles and that cost millions of dollars in research and development,” said US prosecutor Breon Peace, according to a statement. The lawyers for Klaus P. and Tesla have not yet commented on the case.
The company, founded by the two accused in mid-2020, is based in China and, according to the public prosecutor’s office, now has locations in Canada, Germany and Brazil. According to US investigators, it produces the same battery lines as Tesla and markets itself as a cheap alternative.
According to the New York Times, investigators discovered the two suspected economic spies at a trade fair in Las Vegas. After expressing interest in purchasing the information, they managed to persuade Klaus P. to visit New York.