Hanjuan Jin Economic Espionage Spy Case

Economic / Industrial / Corporate Espionage Case

Name	JIN, Hanjuan aka
Employer	Motorola
Dates of Employment	1998-2008 Took two medical leaves of absence: June to September 2005 February 2006-February 2007 Approved for disability from 15 Feb to 9 Oct 2006
Employee Type	Staff
Job Title/Duties	Computer Engineer
Military Rank
Clearance Level
Other	Sept 2004: Consultant for a telecommunications company in the US that is a competitor of Motorola. Received salary from this competitor April to Nov 2006.

Spying For	People's Republic of China/Chinese technology company
Codename
Spying Dates
Co-conspirators	A Chinese executive told Jin, "You should share in the fruit of our collective effort," once she'd stolen top-secret Motorola files, schematics and military communication plans. Xiaohua Wu of Kildeer; Xuefeng Bai of Buffalo Grove; and Xiaohong Sheng of Vernon Hills are alleged in the suit to have worked with Jin in the scheme to spy on Motorola and deliver trade secrets to a Chinese competitor. Shaowei Pan of Kildeer, chief technology officer of Motorola competitor Lemko Corp., 1700 E. Golf Road, Schaumburg, and spouse of Wu, is accused of computer fraud and abuse and misappropriation of trade secrets in the lawsuit.
Methodology	3 Trips to Beijing: April 2005 November 2005 February 2007 During her two medical leaves of absence, JIN accessed the Motorola computer network and downloaded proprietary documents. She also accessed the network on multiple occasions when she was in China (6, 8, 9, 13 Feb 07) June to November 2006 (while she was on medical leave): JIN discussed, negotiated and accepted employment in China with a PRC technology company where she was to work on developing telecommunications software. 21 February 2007: Withdrew $10,000 from her bank account. 23 February 2007: JIN told Motorola she was ready to come back to work full-time. She did not tell them she accepted employment at the PRC company. Her security badge was re-activated. 24 February 2007: JIN purchases a one-way ticket to China for a flight schedule to leave on 28 February 2007. 26 February 2007: JIN resumed her job at Motorola. Told her manager she was interested in future Motorola projects. From 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, she accessed Motorola's security internal computer network and downloaded over 200 technical documents belonging to the company. These were outside the scope of her job. That evening, at 9:00 pm, she returned to her office and downloaded more technical documents belonging to Motorola as well as removed numerous documents and other materials from the offices. Security camera show her leaving the building after midnight with two large bags that appeared to be full. She then returned and brought out a binder, paper documents and multiple books. 27 February 2007: At 12:15 pm, JIN sent an email to her Motorola manager saying she was resigning from the company. JIN withdrew $20,000 from her bank account. She downloaded 65 documents at work. That evening, at 10:00 pm, JIN returned to her Motorola office, accessed the secure internal computer network and downloaded more technical documents belonging to the company. She left the building with her company laptop after midnight. 28 February 2007: At noon, JIN went to O'Hare Airport to catch her one-way ticket flight to China. In her possession, she had over 1,000 electronic and paper documents belonging to Motorola containing technical information, many marked as confidential and proprietary information. 5 March 2007: $115,000 transferred from JIN's bank account to China Mercants Bank in Lanzhou, China.
Possible Motivations, Problems
Finances
Identified/ Investigation	28 Feb 07: During routine check of passengers at O'Hare Airport, Customs and Border Patrol Protection agents discovered she was carrying $30,000 in cash after declaring she had only $10,000. She was about to board a flight to Beijing on a one-way ticket. During the search of Jin and her bags at O'Hare, CBP agents found: Several technical documents labeled "Motorola Confidential Proprietary Seven documents written in Chinese A European company's product catalog of military technology Technical manual written in Chinese Personal laptop computer Thumb drive Four external hard drives 29 CD-Recordable discs 1 videotape Laptop, hard drives and other electronic devices were found to contain more documents marked "Motorola Confidential Proprietary," and 1,300 source code files. 1 March 2007: Stopped and Questioned again by CBP and FBI on at O'Hare Airport as she was trying to depart again on a one-way ticket to Beijing, PRC
Arrest Date/Location	March 2008
Charges	Motorola estimates that JIN stole $600 million in corporate intellectual property Violations: Title 18, USC, Section 1832(a)(3) COUNT ONE: Intent to convert a trade secret to the economic benefit of someone other than the owner of the secret, knowingly and without authorization possessed one or more trade secrets belonging to Motorola, specifically a proprietary document containing proprietary engineering information entitled, "Support for Horizontal Dispatch Networking SAD-172." Such trade secrets being related to or included in products produced for and placed in interstate and foreign commerce, intending and knowing that the offense would injure Motorola, and knowing that the proprietary information was stolen, appropriated, obtained and converted without authorization. COUNT TWO: Same as above except for different proprietary document: "EOTD-based E911 Location Without HAMR." COUNT THREE: Same as above except for different proprietary document: "Base Station System MOBIS Call Processing Interface Specification." September 23, 2008: Motorola filed a lawsuit against ex-software engineer Hanjuan Jin, who has already been charged criminally by federal prosecutors, and three of her co-workers alleging that they stole more than $600 million in top-secret corporate files. The three other Motorola employees named in the lawsuit were accused of computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty. Shaowei Pan, chief technology officer of Motorola competitor Lemko Corp., 1700 E. Golf Road, Schaumburg, and spouse of Wu, is accused of computer fraud and abuse and misappropriation of trade secrets in the lawsuit.
Court	Northern District of Illinois
Lawyers
Status	Trial Date: 5 January, 2009

Date/Place of Birth	1971, PRC
Citizenship	Naturalized US citizen
Residences	Schaumburg, Illinois
Education	Illinois Institute of Technology
Family	Husband Mother in PRC
Other Employment
Additional Bio	JIN said she has tuberculosis and meningitis. Took medical leave from February 2006 to February 2007.

Documents	USA v. Hanjuan Jin Affidavit (3 March 2008) USA v. Hanjuan Jin Indictment (3 April 2008) Suburban Chicago Woman Indicted for Allegedly Stealing Employer's Trade Secrets Bound for China (DOJ press release, 2 April 2008) College Research Paper Motorola Statement
Quotes	"We have to be vigilant in preserving the integrity of trade secrets to provide an honest playing field among business competitors, whether foreign or domestic. Trade secrets often are a business's most valuable assets, and protecting them from theft and betrayal is a high priority for law enforcement."--Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois
Case Links
BOOKS

News:

Schaumburg company denies it stole Motorola secrets

A small Schaumburg software firm sued earlier this week by electronics giant Motorola fired back Thursday, saying the accusations against it do not compute…Motorola accused Lemko of being the beneficiary of stolen trade secrets taken by several former Motorola employees, some of whom also worked for Lemko, the Motorola suit alleges. One of the former Motorola employees, Hanjuan Jin of Schaumburg, has been charged criminally with theft of trade secrets after being authorities said she was caught at O'Hare International Airport trying to board a plane to China with hundreds of Motorola documents and $30,000 in cash, her indictment charges. Jin has pleaded not guilty. Motorola's federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday, went a step further, saying Jin and three other former Motorola employees, Xiaohua Wu of Kildeer, Xuefeng Bai of Buffalo Grove and Xiaohong Sheng of Vernon Hills, took trade secrets for the benefit of Lemko. The suit accuses Wu of giving her husband, Shaowei Pan of Kildeer, some of the secrets. Pan is the chief technology officer of Lemko. The suit alleges that Sheng, a former Lemko employee, secretly continued to work at Lemko even after being hired by Motorola……(Daily Herald, 25 Sep 08)

Motorola sues four former employees

Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. named four former software engineers employed at its Libertyville and Schaumburg offices in a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleging the theft of $600 million in trade secrets with plans to take them to China, officials said. Hanjuan Jin, 37, of Schaumburg was indicted by a federal grand jury in April on three counts of theft of trade secrets and is facing charges of computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty in the lawsuit. Federal authorities said U.S. customs agents seized sensitive proprietary information from Jin as she attempted to board a flight to China on Feb. 28, 2007, at O'Hare International Airport. That included more than 1,000 documents, both electronic and paper, belonging to Motorola. Authorities said they also found $30,000 in her luggage...Three other former Motorola employees were named in the lawsuit - Xiaohua Wu, of 21878 North Tall Hills Drive, Kildeer; Xuefeng Bai of 2444 Palazzo Court, Buffalo Grove; and Xiaohong Sheng of 875 Westmoreland Drive, Apt. 7, Vernon Hills - were accused of computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty in the lawsuit. Bai and Sheng worked at Motorola's Libertyville office; Wu and Jin worked at the Schaumburg office. Shaowei Pan of Kildeer, chief technology officer of Motorola competitor Lemko Corp., 1700 E. Golf Road, Schaumburg, and spouse of Wu, is accused of computer fraud and abuse and misappropriation of trade secrets in the lawsuit......(Daily Herald, 24 Sep 08)

Motorola: More people involved in Chinese spy ring

The alleged Chinese spy that federal authorities say was caught "red-handed" was not working alone, according to her former employer Motorola Inc. Tech giant Motorola filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against ex-software engineer Hanjuan Jin, who has already been charged criminally by federal prosecutors, and three of her co-workers alleging that they stole more than $600 million in top-secret corporate files. The three other former Motorola employees named in the lawsuit were accused of computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty at the Schaumburg-based tech giant. Xiaohua Wu of Kildeer; Xuefeng Bai of Buffalo Grove; and Xiaohong Sheng of Vernon Hills are alleged in the suit to have worked with Jin in the scheme to spy on Motorola and deliver trade secrets to a Chinese competitor. Ms. Jin, 37 of Schaumburg, was arrested by federal agents last year as she was about to walk onto a plane at O'Hare bound for Beijing, China. Authorities say she was attempting to smuggle cash and thousands of company secrets to China on behalf of a Beijing firm that had secretly hired her. Jin is the only one of the four currently facing criminal charges and is scheduled to go on trial January 5th. The lawsuit filed on Tuesday is not the first to be brought by Motorola against a former employee in an alleged corporate espionage case. Michael Fenger was a vice president for Motorola's mobile-device business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a position he left earlier this year. According to a separate lawsuit filed against him in Cook County Circuit Court, Fenger is now Apple's vice president for global iPhone sales. Fenger was "privy to the pricing, margins, customer initiatives, allocation of resources, product development, multiyear-product, business and talent planning, and strategies being used by Motorola," according to the complaint. Fenger's employment by Apple allegedly violates his written agreement not to work for a competitor for at least two years after leaving Motorola……(ABC7, 24 Sep 08)

Motorola sues four former employees for stealing trade secrets

Motorola Inc. has sued four former software engineers working at its Libertyville and Schaumburg offices, for alleged theft of $600 million in trade secrets, on its en route to China, said officials. Former employee Hanjuan Jin, 37, who worked at Schaumburg office was indicted by a federal grand jury in April on three counts of theft of trade secrets and is facing charges of computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty in the lawsuit. Three other former employees- Xiaohua Wu, Xuefeng Bai and Xiaohong Sheng were slapped with allegations of computer fraud and abuse, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty in the lawsuit. Motorola has called for regression of all information in defendant’s possession and compensatory damages of $5,000……(TT Bureau, 24 Sep 08)

Trial set for woman accused of spying for China at Motorola

The trial for an accused Chinese corporate spy living in Schaumburg will begin early next year.

Federal authorities say software engineer, Hanjuan Jin, stole top-secret files from Motorola last year and planned to sell them to a Chinese tech company. Today, U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo set her trial date for January 5th, 2009. Jin did not appear in court, but her lawyer, Tom Breen, told Judge Castillo that this is a document driven case and he has thousands of files to go through. According to a federal indictment, Jin was carrying $600 million in corporate secrets in February of 2007 when she was about to board a plane at O'Hare bound for Beijing. During a routine check, custom agents discovered she was carrying $30,000 in cash, not the $10,000 she had declared. Federal agents say they searched her luggage and found a laptop computer and more than 30 compact data storage devices containing stolen Motorola files……(ABC7, 7 Aug 08)

Second case of 'secrets-for-profit' alleged at Motorola

A former top executive of Schaumburg-based Motorola is being sued by the communications giant, which is accusing him of disclosing trade secrets to aid his current employer Apple Inc. Michael Fenger was a vice president for its mobile-device business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a position he left about 6 months ago. According to a lawsuit filed against him in Cook County Circuit Court, Fenger is now Apple's vice president for global iPhone sales. The Fenger case comes on the heels of spy allegations against a former Motorola software engineer, 37-year old Hanjuan Jin…In the current case, Fenger was "privy to the pricing, margins, customer initiatives, allocation of resources, product development, multiyear-product, business and talent planning, and strategies being used by Motorola," according to the complaint filed in Chicago late Thursday. Fenger's employment by Apple allegedly violates his written agreement not to work for a competitor for at least two years after leaving Motorola. Motorola is asking the court to prevent Fenger from working for Apple for two years…The other case, that of Hanjuan Jin, is a criminal court matter and has yet to go to trial. Jin is a Chinese-born American citizen and graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology. She had been working at Motorola headquarters in Schaumburg since 1998. According to a federal indictment handed up in April, Jin agreed to work for a Chinese tech company that allegedly recruited her to steal Motorola secrets. Federal agents arrested her at O'Hare airport about to board a plane for Beijing and carrying an estimated $600 million in company secrets…..(ABC, 21 Jul 08)

Woman accused of spying for China at Motorola

A Chinese spy was caught "red-handed," according to federal authorities, as she was about to board a plane at O'Hare bound for Beijing. Hanjuan Jin says she worked as a computer engineer for Schaumburg-based Motorola, a global leader in communications technology. Federal agents say Jin was also working as a spy for a Chinese company, and she has been charged in a corporate espionage case that reflects a growing national security problem.....On its Web site, Motorola touts the company's internal security but declined an invitation from the I-Team to explain how an employee just off medical leave could nearly board a plane to Beijing with $600 million in corporate secrets. That is Motorola's own estimate quoted by the FBI........(ABC/WLS-TV News Chicago, 25 Jun 08) VIDEO

Hanjuan Jin Indicted for Allegedly Stealing Telecommunications Trade Secrets

A former software engineer for a telecommunications company based in suburban Chicago was indicted for allegedly stealing business trade secrets and attempting to take the documents with her to China, federal law enforcement officials announced this week. The defendant, Hanjuan Jin, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, allegedly possessed more than 1,000 electronic and paper proprietary documents when she attempted to travel one-way to China in February 2007. The documents were seized by U.S. customs officials at O'Hare International Airport......(Imperial Valley News, 5 Apr 08)

Schaumburg woman is indicted in theft of business secrets intended for China

A Schaumburg woman has been indicted on charges that she stole business trade secrets and attempted to take them to China, which could have cost a suburban telecommunications company more than $600 million over the next three years, federal authorities said Wednesday. Hanjuan Jin, 37, was charged with three counts of theft of trade secrets, authorities said. The indictment was returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Chicago.......... Authorities said Jin began working as a software engineer for a telecommunications company based in the Chicago suburbs in 1998. In February 2006, she took a medical leave of absence. Between June and November of that year, she accepted employment with a company in China where she was to work on developing communications software. Neither firm was identified, but several companies in the Schaumburg area are known as world leaders in the technology industry, said James Conley, clinical professor for the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.......(Chicago Tribune, 3 Apr 08)

Random Search Stops $600 Million In Trade Secrets Bound For China

A former software engineer for a telecommunications company based near Chicago was indicted for allegedly stealing trade secrets worth an estimated $600 million and trying to take the documents to China.

The FBI said Wednesday that Hanjuan Jin of Schaumburg, Ill., a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China, was stopped at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Feb. 28, 2007, in a random search. According to an affidavit filed by FBI special agent Michael R. Diekmann, Jin was traveling on a one-way ticket to Beijing at the time. She declared that she had $10,000 in U.S. currency in her carry-on luggage. Customs and Border Protection officers found about $30,000 in cash. According to Diekmann, this prompted officers to further inspect Jin's luggage, whereupon they found several technical documents labeled "[Company A] Confidential Property," Chinese documents, a European company's product catalog of military technology written in English, a personal laptop computer, a thumb drive, four external hard drives, 29 recordable compact discs, and one videotape…..(Information Week, 3 Apr 08)

Worker accused of stealing secrets

…The release of the classified engineering information on three computer networking products would have cost the suburban telecommunications firm that employed Jin $600 million over the next three years, officials said. Court documents identify the firm only as "Company A." Hanjuan Jin posted a $50,000 bond and is to be arraigned on a future date. She was arrested March 7. According to authorities, Jin, a U.S. citizen born in China, began working for "Company A" in 1998. The firm granted her medical leave in February 2006. Later that year -- without telling "Company A" -- she began working for a Chinese company in telecommunications software development, court documents state…..(Daily Herald, 3 Apr 08)