[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Skip to Main Content

Latest News

Advertisement
Advertise Here
September 22, 2011

Scientist Admits Trade Secret Theft

Industrial Espionage: Plea deal, if accepted by court, will avoid a trial for former Dow researcher

Marc S. Reisch

  • Print this article
  • Email the editor

Latest News



October 28, 2011

Speedy Homemade-Explosive Detector

Forensic Chemistry: A new method could increase the number of explosives detected by airport screeners.

Solar Panel Makers Cry Foul

Trade: U.S. companies complain of market dumping by China.

Novartis To Cut 2,000 Jobs

Layoffs follow similar moves by Amgen, AstraZeneca.

Nations Break Impasse On Waste

Environment: Ban to halt export of hazardous waste to developing world.

New Leader For Lawrence Livermore

Penrose (Parney) Albright will direct DOE national lab.

Hair Reveals Source Of People's Exposure To Mercury

Toxic Exposure: Mercury isotopes in human hair illuminate dietary and industrial sources.

Why The Long Fat?

Cancer Biochemistry: Mass spectrometry follows the metabolism of very long fatty acids in cancer cells.

Text Size A A

Former Dow AgroSciences scientist Kexue Huang has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of stealing trade secrets from Dow Chemical and the agribusiness company Cargill.

If a federal judge in Indianapolis accepts the deal between Huang and federal prosecutors at a hearing on Oct. 18, Huang will avoid a trial scheduled for the end of October. He could receive up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine on one count and 10 years and another $500,000 fine on the second count.

Huang, 46, worked for Dow between 2003 and 2008. He was first arrested by the FBI in July 2010 on charges that he stole information related to the biosynthesis of Dow’s Spinosad brand spinosyn insecticide ( C&EN, July 26, 2010, page 9).

According to the plea deal, while he was employed by Dow, Huang applied for funding from the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China. He then used the money to direct R&D at Hunan Normal University on some of the same spinosyn-related technology he had researched for Dow. He also sent spinosyn material to a university scientist.

In the plea deal, Huang also admits to stealing an enzyme under development for a new food product from Cargill, which is identified in court documents as Company A. Huang sent the DNA sequence of the enzyme to a student he was mentoring in China.

A Cargill spokeswoman tells C&EN that Huang worked for the firm between 2008 and 2009. She adds that Cargill cooperated with the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in pressing the case against him.

Dow has had problems with industrial espionage before. In February, a federal jury in Baton Rouge, La., convicted Dow researcher Wen Chyu Liu of stealing trade secrets pertaining to the elastomer chlorinated polyethylene and selling them to Chinese firms.

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
  • Print this article
  • Email the editor

Services & Tools

ACS Resources

ACS is the leading employment source for recruiting scientific professionals. ACS Careers and C&EN Classifieds provide employers direct access to scientific talent both in print and online. Jobseekers | Employers

» Join ACS

Join more than 161,000 professionals in the chemical sciences world-wide, as a member of the American Chemical Society.
» Join Now!