ONETIME DUPONT SCIENTIST ENTERS GUILTY PLEA TO ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE CHARGE

Tze Chao, an ex DuPont employee from Delaware, pled guilty to one count of economic espionage in United States District Court in San Francisco earlier this month, specifically confessing that in 2008 and 2009 he passed on DuPont trade secrets regarding titanium dioxide production to the Chinese government directed Pangang Group Company Ltd. Mr. Chao had a longstanding association with the Wilmington, Delaware headquartered DuPont, his employment there stretching from 1966 to 2002, and thereafter was connected to the company through a consultant arrangement. His work pertained to chloride-route titanium oxide processing, a cleaner technique for manufacturing the white pigment found in paint, plastics, and paper. Pangang Group operates the largest titanium facility in China and is foremost among that nation’s titanium pigment manufacturers, its website declares. DuPont, the world leader in titanium dioxide production, has refused to sell or license the chloride-route technology it invented to Chinese companies.
A superseding grand jury indictment on February 8 brought Chao in as a defendant in a theft of trade secrets suit already underway against Walter and Christina Liew, proprietors of an engineering consulting business. Brought in as defendants as well were the Liews’ Oakland based firm, USA Performance Technology Inc., and Pangang Group. Chao, a naturalized American citizen, claimed that personnel of the latter company exploited his Chinese background and requested he strive to benefit the People’s Republic of China. The maximum penalty for conspiring to carry out economic spying is a 15 year prison term, half a million dollar fine, and remuneration determined by a judge. Chao assented to a plea bargain, whereby he would assist in the prosecution mounted against his fellow defendants and might receive a lighter sentence in exchange for his aid. The sentencing hearing is unscheduled as yet.