The FBI has arrested another suspect in the Corning Inc. trade secrets case. Yeong C. Lin, 65, of Fountain Valley, California, was arrested 9 November 2005 by agents of the FBI“s Santa Ana office.
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The FBI has arrested another suspect in the Corning Inc. trade secrets case. Yeong C. Lin, 65, of Fountain Valley, California, was arrested 9 November 2005 by agents of the FBI“s Santa Ana office. Lin is the second person to be charged. Jonathan Sanders of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, was arrested 20 October 2005 on a charge of theft of trade secrets and is scheduled to appear 30 November 2005 in US District Court in Rochester. Sanders, a former employee of Corning Inc.“s Harrodsburg, Kentucky, plant, is accused of stealing proprietary documents about the process used to make LCD glass. Lin is accused of acquiring the documents from Sanders and providing them to Picvue Electronics, a Taiwanese company that he worked for as a consultant. Theft of trade secrets carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Lin was arraigned in US District Court in the Central District of California. Prosecuting in the case is Tiffany Lee, assistant US attorney in Rochester. According to the FBI, Sanders found drawings detailing Corning“s fusion draw process in a warehouse in 1999 in Harrodsburg and sold them to Picvue representatives for USD 25,000. Lin allegedly received the money from Picvue and gave it to a former college roommate, who met Sanders and completed the transaction. LCD glass is Corning Inc.“s best-selling and most profitable product. Picvue reportedly wanted the data on Corning“s manufacturing process so it could enter the business itself. Following Sanders“ arrest, Corning Inc. and Picvue settled a lawsuit for patent infringement that Corning had filed against the Taiwanese company . The FBI said its investigation of the industrial espionage case continues. Another potential target is former Picvue President Jacob Lin, who headed the company when the USD 25,000 payment to Sanders was authorized.