It’s a story worthy of a spy movie. A former Apple engineer, Xiaolang Zhang, has pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose to stealing sensitive data from the US tech giant. Facts about the mysterious car division that he was about to pass on to his new employer, Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology, better known under the name of its electric car brand, Xpeng.
10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000
“Zhang was accused of downloading internal Apple files on the company’s automotive project, specifically a 25-page document that includes technical schematics of a circuit board for an autonomous vehicle,” as well as documents describing vehicle prototypes, CNBC explains. . The engineer faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Xiaolang Zhang, who initially pleaded not guilty, reached a plea deal with prosecutors. The verdict will be known next November, says Reuters.
standing at the airport
The circumstances are quite disturbing: Xiaolang Zhang worked for Apple since 2015, in this very secret automotive division of the company, say documents consulted by the US justice system. In July 2018, he was arrested by US agents at the San Jose airport as he was preparing to fly to China.
“Apple has determined that he transferred approximately 24GB of ‘highly problematic’ data to his wife’s laptop via AirDrop, and also seized circuit boards and a server from the company’s Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory,” writes The Verge, who had published an investigation into this case in the summer of 2018.
Another former Apple engineer, accused of the same charges, Jizhong Chen, pleaded not guilty and the hearing was set for August 29.
Source: BFM TV
