Kexue Huang, a Chinese national pleaded guilty to one count of economic espionage to benefit a foreign university tied to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Huang, 48, pleaded guilty to the charges before U.S. District Judge in Indiana. In July 2010, Huang was charged in an indictment for misappropriating and transporting trade secrets to the PRC while working as a research scientist at Dow AgroSciences LLC.
Huang admitted that during his employment at Dow, he misappropriated several Dow trade secrets. According to plea documents, from 2007 to 2010, Huang transferred and delivered the stolen Dow trade secrets to individuals in Germany and the PRC. With the assistance of these individuals, Huang used the stolen materials to conduct unauthorized research with the intent to benefit foreign universities tied to the PRC. Huang also admitted that he pursued steps to develop and produce the misappropriated Dow trade secrets in the PRC, including identifying manufacturing facilities in the PRC that would allow him to compete directly with Dow in the established organic pesticide market. | 
