Chinese man pleads guilty in $100M stolen software ring
In a case U.S. officials say is the first of its kind, a Chinese businessman pleaded guilty Monday to selling stolen American software used in defense, space technology and engineering — programs prosecutors said held a retail value of more than $100 million.
The sophisticated software was stolen from an estimated 200 American manufacturers and sold to 325 black market buyers in 61 countries from 2008 to 2011, prosecutors said in court filings. U.S. buyers in 28 states included a NASA engineer and the chief scientist for a defense and law-enforcement contractor, prosecutors said.
Corporate victims in the case included Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation,, Agilent Technolgoies, Siemens, Delcam, Altera Corp and SAP, a government spokesman said. U.S. officials and the Chinese man's lawyer, Mingli Chen, said the case was the first in which a businessman involved in pirating industrial software was lured from China by undercover agents and arrested.
