Coming on the heels of the conviction of a former WuXi PharmaTech ($WX) employee found guilty of stealing Merck ($MRK) compounds from the Chinese CRO, a former Sandia National Laboratories scientist is accused of embezzling from Sandia and trying to share nanotech research with state-run universities in China.
According to The Associated Press, Jianyu Huang was arraigned in court this month on 5 counts of federal program fraud and one count of false statements. He has pleaded not guilty to all 6 charges.
Authorities allege that going as far back as 2009, Huang took nanotechnology research conducted at Sandia's Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies and tried to pass it off as his own to share online with various Chinese, state-run universities, like Peking University and the Harbin Institute of Technology. Huang was fired from Sandia in April for "violating procedure," according to a Sandia statement cited by the AP.
Huang's exploits illustrate the problem with intellectual property security going in and out of China. The WuXi incident served as a reminder of the difficulties Chinese businesses are enduring to protect their hard work, as they try to strengthen security measures. And earlier this year, a former Sanofi ($SNY) scientist based out of New Jersey admitted to stealing information on experimental compounds and attempting to sell them to a subsidiary of a Chinese chemical company.
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