Status: 07.01.2022 11:16 a.m.
According to the US government, a Chinese national has admitted industrial espionage at the agricultural company Monsanto. He is said to have stolen software. Now he faces a long prison sentence in the USA.
The Chinese imaging scientist Xiang Haitao has to stand trial in the USA for industrial espionage. He is said to have stolen trade secrets from the agricultural company Monsanto and passed them on to the Chinese state. Now the 44-year-old has pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to commit industrial espionage on behalf of China, according to the US Department of Justice.
Xiang worked for Monsanto and its subsidiary The Climate Corporation between 2008 and 2017. According to the Justice Department, he allegedly stole software developed by Monsanto to help farmers improve their crop yields.
“Ordinary, isolated incident”
The scientist admitted that he “stole a Monsanto trade secret, transferred it to a memory card and tried to bring it to the People’s Republic of China for the benefit of the Chinese government,” said Deputy Attorney General Matthew Olsen. Xiang faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $ 5 million fine if convicted.
“We cannot allow US citizens or foreign nationals to pass on sensitive business information to competitors in other countries,” said the Missouri state attorney Sayler Fleming. The Monsanto Group, which was taken over by the DAX company Bayer in 2018, is headquartered in the eastern district of the US state Missouri.
When Xiang was indicted by the US authorities in 2019, the Chinese State Department said the Washington government was trying to use the case to back up its allegations of industrial espionage against China. It was an “ordinary, isolated incident” that the US government was trying to play up, spokesman Geng Shuang said at the time.