In yet another indictment in the continuing trend of prosecution of trade secret theft under the Economic Espionage Act, the government has indicted Chunlai Yang with two counts of trade secrets theft in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). The government asserts that Yang stole proprietary source code from his employer, CME Group Inc., in order to start his own futures exchange software company. Yang pled not guilty to both counts.
CME brought the case to the U.S. Attorney with evidence that Yang had downloaded over 1,000 source code files from the secure company computer system to his unsecure work computer. Yang then moved the files to his own personal computer. His apparent intent was to use the source code of CME’s own Globex trading system as the backbone for his own company’s system. His company was to be entitled Tongmei Futures Exchange Software Technology Co.
The potential repercussions for Yang are up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 for each count. In addition, the government seeks to take control over Yang’s computers and other equipment and any proceeds from his actions.
The fact that CME brought the case directly to the U.S. Attorney has been touted by the U.S. Attorney’s office as a good example of corporate and law enforcement cooperation on the protection of trade secrets.