A former engineer at technology giant Apple (AAPL) has been charged with stealing sensitive information and data related to the company’s self-driving car technology and providing it to Chinese authorities.
Prosecutors accuse Weibao Wang, age 35, of stealing thousands of files containing proprietary information while secretly working for an unnamed Chinese company.
Wang left the U.S. and relocated to China five years ago. He has now been charged in America with six counts of theft or attempted theft of trade secrets.
This is the third time that a former Apple employee has been accused of stealing self-driving vehicle technology secrets for China.
The U.S. Justice Department has accused Wang of stealing documents containing the source code for the software and hardware behind Apple’s self-driving vehicle systems.
Wang joined Apple in 2016 as a member of the team that developed technology for autonomous systems. At that time, he signed multiple confidentiality agreements related to the project.
Wang left Apple in 2018 after he accepted an offer to work as an engineer at another company developing self-driving cars in China.
Law enforcement searched Wang’s former home in Mountain View, California back in 2018. An analysis of the devices seized from Wang’s home shows he had stored large quantities of Apple data on the company’s self-driving car technology.
The U.S. Justice Department says Wang remains in China. If extradited and convicted of the charges in the U.S., he could face up to 10 years in prison for each of the six counts against him.
Two other former Apple employees have previously been charged in similar cases involving the theft of trade secrets and sensitive data.
Xiaolang Zhang pleaded guilty last year in a California court. He was arrested in 2018 as he tried to board a flight to China. Another former Apple employee, Jizhong Chen, is currently facing similar charges related to corporate espionage.
Apple’s stock has risen 23% in the last 12 months to trade at $172.69 U.S. per share.
