United States of America v. Yihao Pu

The 7th circuit vacated a $760,000 restitution penalty and three-year prison sentence against Yihao Pu. Pu allegedly used two employers’ proprietary stock trading programs for personal trading and lost $40,000.The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s guidelines permit district courts to determine the “intended loss” to the victim of trade secret theft when no “actual loss” occurs. However, on February 24, 2016, the 7th Circuit held that if a district court holds that the “intended loss” holds the same value as the cost of development of the trade secret, the court must have evidence that the defendant “intended to cause a loss to the victims that equaled the cost of development. On remand, the district court will have to reconsider Pu’s evidence that the loss to his employers was at most, $2,000. The 7th Circuit also held that the district court could consider Pu’s gains in determining an “intended loss” figure, but here it appeared that Pu did not have any financial gains from the use of the software.

Part of the original $760,000 included costs incurred to conduct an internal investigation to uncover Pu’s theft, including attorney’s fees for over 300 hours of work by lawyers, paralegals and legal assistance, 1,818 hours of forensic analyst work, as well as divers to retrieve hard drives from a canal. The Circuit court also held that plaintiff Citadel failed to give a complete accounting to support these figures used to calculate the $760,000 restitution. Without giving a further explanation through evidence “of how each professional’s time was spent investigating the data breach,” Citadel will not be awarded the full $760,000 restitution. For more details, read the full decision below.

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