A former Apple engineer has pled guilty to stealing trade secrets from the company. In a San Jose federal court, Xiaolang Zhang admitted to the theft of Apple’s Project Titan trade secrets and could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine…
The United States FBI first changed Zhang with stealing trade secrets back in 2018. At the time, it was reported that Zhang had taken parental leave from Apple and visited China during this time. When his parental leave at Apple was due to end, he informed the company that he would not be returning.
Instead, Zhang moved to China and joined XMotors, a Chinese-based startup developing autonomous technology for cars. Apple claimed to have noticed evasive behavior around the time of his exit, which prompted an investigation by the company’s New Product Security Team. This included an investigation into his network activity and Apple devices, which were surrendered when he left the company.
During his time at Apple, Zhang had worked on multiple products including designing and testing circuit boards capable of analyzing data from sensors. One of the areas of specific focus was Apple’s Project Titan self-driving car technology.
Through the investigation, it was revealed that Zhang had downloaded numerous files from Apple’s servers prior to his departure. Most notably, this included a 25-page document with engineering schematics of a circuit board for an autonomous vehicle. Among other things, he had also downloaded information about prototype and testing hardware.
Zhang pled not guilty to the charges shortly after he was charged in 2018. This time around, however, Zhang pled guilty to the charges as part of a plea agreement. As noted by CNBC, Zhang’s plea agreement is currently under seal. Sentencing is scheduled for November, with Zhang facing up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Apple is also continuing its legal battle with Jizhong Chen, another former Project Titan engineer accused of stealing trade secrets in 2019. This case is still in its early days and Chen has not pled guilty. He is being represented by the same lawyer as Zhang.
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