Chinese national Xu Jiaqiang, a former IBM software developer based in China, was sentenced in January 2018 in White Plains federal court (SDNY) to five years (60 months) in prison for stealing the source code of IBM's proprietary clustered file system, the General Parallel File System (GPFS), and attempting to monetize it for the benefit of foreign entities. Xu had worked as a developer with access to GPFS source code from 2010 until 2014, and after leaving IBM he made the stolen code available to undercover FBI agents posing as private investors interested in setting up a large-data-storage business in China. He demonstrated functioning GPFS-derived software during meetings with the undercover agents and admitted intending to benefit the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China. Xu pleaded guilty in May 2017 to all six counts of a superseding indictment, including economic espionage under 18 U.S.C. § 1831 and theft of a trade secret under 18 U.S.C. § 1832. Announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman emphasized that Xu had betrayed a position of trust by stealing valuable proprietary technology for a foreign government's benefit; the punishment also included three years of supervised release.

Sources

• -https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/chinese-national-sentenced-white-plains-federal-court-economic-espionage-and-theft