(Reuters) — A Chinese scientist in Kansas has been convicted of conspiring to steal samples of genetically modified rice seeds from a U.S. research facility.
Weiqiang Zhang worked as a rice breeder for Ventria Bioscience Inc., which develops GM rice used in the therapeutic and medical fields.
He stole seeds and provided them to employees of a crop research institute in China when they visited him in 2013 in Kansas.
Customs officers found seeds in the visitors’ luggage as they were returning to China.
