KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) — Three Chinese nationals, including one who attended a gala dinner for the then-vice president of China, have been charged in two separate cases of trying to steal seed technology, trade secrets under development in the United States, authorities say.
After a two-year investigation, an executive working for a Chinese conglomerate was arrested on charges of stealing inbred corn seed from production fields in Iowa and Illinois and trying to smuggle it into China, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Iowa Nicholas Klinefeldt said.
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FBI agents tracked Mo Hailong, director of the international business of the Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co., a part of DBN Group, using GPS surveillance and planted listening devices in cars that he and other unnamed conspirators drove on rural roads, court papers said.
The others included employees at U.S. seed companies who provided locations where experiments with genetically altered seeds took place; or they provided gene sequencing information for the bioengineered seeds, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in the southern district of Iowa.
The thefts took place between September 2011 and October 2012, according to papers at the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
