Behind espionage – Chery’s spy charge shows growing pains for Chinese automakers

In the latest flurry of industrial espionage cases, a Chinese American couple has been accused of stealing $40 million worth of trade secrets from General Motors and selling them to a Chinese carmaker.

Experts say the espionage betrays the difficulties Chinese carmakers face as they ponder global expansion.

GM espionage saga

Shashan Du, 51, and her husband Yu Qin, 49, appeared in federal court last Thursday to be arraigned on charges punishable by 20 years imprisonment and heavy fines.

The couple, who has been under investigation since 2006, is charged with four crimes including conspiracy to possess trade secrets without authorization, unauthorized possession of trade secrets and wire fraud.

The documents allegedly stolen and sold involved GM’s research into its hybrid vehicles, according to court documents. GM estimates the value of the stolen documents to be close to $40 million.

According to the federal indictment obtained by ABC News, between December 2003 to May 2006, Du, a former GM employee, allegedly uploaded a confidential GM document entitled “Hybrid Electric Drive System” and saved thousands of pages of sensitive GM trade information relating to hybrid vehicles onto a hard drive.

Du then allegedly used her GM email account to relay the information to her husband Qin, who is accused of using it to benefit Millennium Technology International, a company the couple owns together.

Months later, Qin supposedly approached Chery Automobile, a China-based automotive manufacturer and GM competitor, to sell the new hybrid technology.

The alleged theft forced GM to upgrade its security system.