PASADENA >> A federal judge this week convicted a former employee of a Pasadena-based avionics company of 32 counts of economic espionage for stealing company secrets and distributing them to three competitors, authorities said.
Derek Wai Hung Tam Sing, 44, of Glendale, was found guilty Tuesday by United States District Judge Christina A. Snyder, who issued a 28-page ruling convicted Sing of 32 counts, while acquitting him of one additional county of illegal possession of trade secrets from another company where he had worked as a contractor, U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Thom Mrozek said in a written statement.
He faces up to 320 years in federal prison when he returns to court for sentencing March 21, officials said. Until then, he is confined to home detention and under electronic monitoring.
Sing worked as an electrical engineer for Rogerson Kratos Avionics in 2012. Until his termination for what Snyder described as “delays in completing assignments, late attendance and unprofessional attitude,” he had access to company trade secrets, Mrozek said. He had signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Sing was asked to return all trade secrets upon his firing, but retained trade secrets anyway, officials said.
“He packaged the trade secrets with sufficient supporting documentation and instructions so that other competitor companies would be able to use the trade secrets and reverse engineer RK’s products,” Snyder wrote in her ruling. “Defendant admitted that, in preparing these trade secrets, he ‘wanted to get back at Rogerson Kratos’ for not fully appreciating his work while he was an employee.”
Sing used a false name and a public Internet connection at a Starbucks coffee shop, Sing sent stolen trade secrets to other avionics companies in 2013, including one outside the U.S., Mrozek said. He also sent trade secrets via physical flash drives.
The plan came apart when one of the companies who received the ill-gotten trade secrets came forward, U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker said.
“Sing attempted to hurt his former employer by stealing its trade secrets, making the material easily understood by engineers at other companies, and using an assumed identity to send the propriety information in the hope it would be used to develop a product to compete with his former employer,” Decker said. “If not for the ethical conduct of one competitor, Mr. Sing might have succeeded in delivering a crippling blow to the company that once employed him.”
“The Department of Justice recognizes that intellectual property is a vital part of the economy of both Southern California as well as the nation,” Decker added.