Ford Hit by International Espionage

CHICAGO — A former Ford product engineer was arrested Wednesday at O'Hare International Airport and has been charged with stealing trade secrets to give to a Chinese company or companies. Mike Yu, age 47, has been charged with having copied thousands of sensitive design documents onto a portable hard drive before leaving his job at Ford in 2007. Yu, a Chinese national, was returning from a trip to Beijing when he was arrested. The FBI had led the investigation that culminated in his arrest after being contacted by Ford, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The Department of Justice issued a statement Thursday saying the documents included "design specifications for the engine/transmission mounting subsystem, electrical distribution system, electric power supply, electrical subsystem and generic body module." Yu is charged with having taken the stolen materials to China in 2005 and again in 2008 to try to get jobs with Chinese automotive companies. The indictment alleges that Yu copied some 4,000 documents from Ford onto the external hard drive in December 2006, after taking a job with a company in China but before giving notice to Ford that he was leaving. The Journal reported that the company was Foxconn, PCE. The Journal also reported that Wu later used the stolen documents while seeking work with Shanghai Automotive, prior to accepting a job with Beijing Automotive in 2008. The indictment does not give the names of the companies.

Yu, whose Chinese name is Xiang Dong Yu, could get as much as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of theft of trade secrets, and five years and a $250,000 fine on a charge of unauthorized computer use, the indictment says.

A Ford spokeswoman, quoted by the Detroit Free Press, said the automaker is "fully cooperating with authorities" in the case. Yu will face a detention hearing in Chicago next Tuesday.

Inside Line says: This is just the sort of intellectual-property drainage that the U.S. automakers have been worrying about. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent