Ex-Dow Chemical Scientist Gets 5 Year Sentence For Trade Secret Theft

Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that a five-year prison sentence against Wen Chyu Liu, also known as David W. Liou, was handed down yesterday by U.S. District Judge James J. Brady in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Friday. A jury in February convicted Liu of perjury and conspiring to steal Dow trade secrets. He was indicted in 2005.

Liu, 75, of Houston worked for Dow from 1965 to 1992. At its Plaquemine, Louisiana, facility he had access to secrets related to the manufacture of chlorinated polyethylene or CPE, used in the making of vinyl siding, electrical cable jackets and industrial hoses, according to a U.S. Justice Department statement. Dow called the theft and sale of its intellectual property “a complete betrayal of the trust imparted to Mr. Liou as a Dow employee.”