A Chinese national, who is also a U.S. citizen, has been arrested for allegedly stealing sensitive missile-tracking secrets from a defense contractor. The man, who has ties to the Chinese government, was taken into custody in California.
What Happened: Chenguang Gong was arrested in California and charged with stealing trade secrets from a defense contractor, the Justice Department said in a press release on Wednesday. The stolen secrets included blueprints for technologies used to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, reported Business Insider.
Gong, a resident of San Jose, California, and a U.S. citizen since 2011, transferred over 3,600 files from the company to a personal storage device while employed there for less than a month in March and April of last year, according to prosecutors.
The company’s research and development center was based in Malibu, California, and had contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense. The technology stolen by Gong was deemed “dangerous to U.S. national security if obtained by international actors.”
During the investigation, the FBI found that Gong …