San Jose man headed to prison for stealing missile defense secrets

LOS ANGELES A judge on Monday sentenced a -year-old San Jose man to nearly four years in federal prison for stealing thousands of files containing sensitive missile technologies and arrangement secrets according to the U S Attorney s Office Related Articles Two killed in apparent murder-suicide at South Bay home Saratoga resident loses over million in cryptocurrency scam Four accused arrested fifth sought in San Jose shooting Judge reaffirms orders pretrial release of defendants ahead of Sunnyvale murder trial Man infamous for South Bay jail escape gets significantly reduced prison term after appeal Chenguang Gong a dual citizen of the United States and China pleaded guilty on July to one count of theft of contract secrets Gong transferred more than files from the Los Angeles-area research-and-development company he worked at briefly to personal storage devices prosecutors mentioned The stolen files included blueprints for sensors designed to track and detect nuclear ballistic and hypersonic missiles as well as blueprints for sensors designed to enable U S fighter jets to detect and evade heat-seeking missiles prosecutors revealed The Los Angeles-area company identified only as the victim company hired Gong in January to design develop and verify infrared sensors From March to his termination on April he transferred thousands of files from his work laptop to three personal storage devices including more than files after he had accepted a job at one of the company s main competitors prosecutors mentioned Selected of the information was worth hundreds of millions of dollars prosecutors explained Prosecutors revealed Gong also applied to talent programs administered by the People s Republic of China between and The country allegedly uses the programs to identify individuals who have specialized skills and abilities in advanced sciences and technologies to benefit China and its military according to prosecutors Gong traveled to China to seek talent project funding to develop analog-to-digital converters prosecutors revealed In a email translated from Chinese Gong disclosed he took a jeopardy by traveling to China to participate in the talent programs because he worked for an American military industry company and thought he could do something to contribute to China s high-end military integrated circuits according to prosecutors In addition to the prison term the judge ordered Gong to pay a fine and about in restitution Staff writer Molly Gibbs contributed to this assessment