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Former Apple car engineer pleads guilty to trade secret theft
A former Apple Inc engineer on Monday (August 18) pleaded guilty to trade secret theft - one of two people accused of stealing trade secrets from the iPhone maker’s nascent self-driving car program, Reuters reported, the al-Arabiya English said.
US federal prosecutors have alleged that Xiaolang Zhang downloaded the plan for a circuit board for Apple’s self-driving after disclosing his intentions to work for a Chinese self-driving car startup and booking a last-minute flight to China, it said.
He was arrested at the San Jose airport after he passed through a security checkpoint, the report mentioned.
Zhang initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but according to court documents on Monday (August 18), he had reached a plea deal with prosecutors and changed his plea to guilty. The plea deal is sealed and sentencing is set for November.
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Zhang’s attorney confirmed the plea agreement but declined further comment. Apple and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jizhong Chen, the other former Apple engineer charged with trade secret theft, has pleaded not guilty. He has a court hearing set for Aug. 29.
Source: alarabiyaenglish
