A former engineer from Santa Clara County has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secret technologies developed for the U.S. government. Chenguang Gong, 59, of San Jose, admitted to one count of theft of trade secrets. He remains free on a $1.75 million bond.
Gong, a dual citizen of the United States and China, transferred over 3,600 files from his former employer, a Los Angeles-area research and development company referred to as the victim company in court documents. The files included blueprints for infrared sensors designed for space-based systems that detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Some files were found on storage devices seized from Gong’s temporary residence in Thousand Oaks.
Hired in January 2023 as an application-specific integrated circuit design manager at the victim company, Gong transferred thousands of files to personal storage devices during his employment until April 26, 2023. This transfer continued even after he accepted a job at one of the company’s main competitors.
The stolen files contained proprietary information related to readout integrated circuits used in missile detection and tracking systems and “next generation” sensors for detecting low observable targets. These trade secrets are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Between 2014 and 2022, Gong applied to several ‘Talent Programs’ administered by the Chinese government while working at major U.S. technology companies. In these applications, he proposed developing military-applicable technologies such as high-performance analog-to-digital converters.
In September 29 sentencing hearing is scheduled by United States District Judge John F. Walter where Gong could face up to ten years in federal prison.
The investigation is being conducted by the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office through the Counterintelligence Task Force with assistance from various agencies including Homeland Security Investigations and others.
Assistant United States Attorneys David C. Lachman and Nisha Chandran are prosecuting this case with help from Department of Justice Trial Attorney Brendan P. Geary.
