Man pleads guilty to stealing Monsanto trade secret for Chinese government

A Chinese national has pleaded guilty to stealing a trade secret from the company Monsanto to give to the Chinese government. 

The Department of Justice announced that on Thursday, Xiang Haitao pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit economic espionage.

According to court documents, Xiang worked as an imaging scientist for Monsanto and its subsidiary, The Climate Corporation, from 2008 to 2017. 

The companies “​​developed a digital, online farming software platform that was used by farmers to collect, store and visualize critical agricultural field data and increase and improve agricultural productivity for farmers,” according to the Justice Department. 

A major component of the platform, court documents said, was an algorithm called Nutrient Optimizer that the companies said was their intellectual property and a valuable trade secret. 

Xiang downloaded copies of the algorithm and in June 2017 attempted to go to China a day after his employment with the companies ended to give Nutrient Optimizer to the Chinese government, according to court documents.

He was caught by federal officials, who searched his bags before he boarded the plane and found the electronic devices with the information. 

“Mr. Xiang used his insider status at a major international company to steal valuable trade secrets for use in his native China,” U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming for the Eastern District of Missouri said in a statement.

“We cannot allow U.S. citizens or foreign nationals to hand sensitive business information over to competitors in other countries, and we will continue our vigorous criminal enforcement of economic espionage and trade secret laws. These crimes present a danger to the U.S. economy and jeopardize our nation’s leadership in innovation and our national security,” Fleming continued.

Xiang will be sentenced on April 7 and could face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a possible fine of $5 million and a term of supervised release for a maximum of three years.