Former Software Engineer for Chicago Based CME Group Indicted for Criminal Trade Secret Theft

Bloomberg Businessweek's Margaret Cronin Fisk is reporting that Chunlai Yang, a 48 year old former software engineer for CME Group, has been indicted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago for two counts of trade secret theft.

The U.S. claims Yang downloaded more than 1,000 computer files containing CME computer source code from December 8, 2010, to June 30, 2011, related to the company’s Globex electronic trading platform. The U.S. alleged Yang transferred the files to his home computer via a flash drive and negotiated to provide source code to the Zhangjiagang, China, chemical electronic trading exchange.

Yang's attorney, Edward Genson from Chicago, says the government has this all wrong. These claims are “specious,” Genson said. “There was a business but it involved real estate." The source codes at CME were “incompatible for use in China,” he said.

We'll keep an eye on this one for you.