Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

China’s Document-Snitcher|Gets Four Years in Prison

CHICAGO (CN) - A woman who tried to flee to Beijing after stealing more than 2,000 confidential Motorola documents was sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Hanjuan Jin, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen, worked for Motorola as a software engineer for eight years before taking a leave of absence in 2006, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement announcing her sentence Wednesday.

Jin accepted a job in China in 2006 with Motorola competitor Sun Kaisens, which develops technology for the Chinese military, prosecutors said.

Without disclosing that she accepted a job with Sun Kaisens, Jin returned to work at Motorola for one day and downloaded more than 2,000 technical documents from the company's, printing some and storing others on her personal hard drive.

The next day, U.S. Customs stopped her before she boarded a flight to Beijing because she was carrying more than $30,000 in cash. Agents found Motorola documents in her luggage marked "confidential and proprietary information," and documents in Chinese describing telecommunications projects for the Chinese military.

A federal judge in February found her guilty of stealing trade secrets, but not of economic espionage.

U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo found that the evidence "firmly establish[ed] Jin's criminal intent," but the stolen documents discussed old technology that would soon be outdated. "This was not cutting-edge technology that would necessarily give the PRC [People's Republic of China] any tactical, reputational, or other benefit," he ruled.

Jin was ordered to report to prison in October. She also was fined $20,000.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...