Economic Espionage at the Paint Factory

From the Daily Herald of Arlington, Illinois, a report on an indictment from the ubiquitous U.S. Attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, charging Arlington Heights resident David Yen Lee on five count of economic espionage based on stolen trade secrets he sought to divulge to a competitor of his former employer, paint company Valspar Corp.

We first blogged about this case back in March when Mr. Lee was arrested: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/03/chicago-area-valspar-employee-arrested.html.

According to the indictment, the 52-year-old Lee worked as technical director of new product development for Valspar. Lee, the indictment claims, downloaded documents and data from Valspar and its China subsidiary, Huarun Ltd., to an external thumb drive authorities found during a March search of Lee's home.

Lee had abruptly resigned from Valspar in mid-March, shortly after purchasing a one-way ticket to Shanghai, authorities say.

According to the story, if convicted, he could face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count in the indictment.

No one, of course, has ever gotten that maximum sentence.