A former employee of Apple Inc pleaded not guilty after federal prosecutors this week filed an indictment blaming him of taking away trade secrets.
Federal executives indicted Xiaolang Zhang on July 12 on a single count of trade secret theft, blaming that Zhang had taken a blueprint (which is 25 pages long) for a circuit board developed to be employed in an autonomous car, as per the indictment filed in U.S. for the Northern District of California’s District Court.
The official indictment comes after a filing by an FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agent on July 10 defining the charge and Zhang’s arrest at an airport in Silicon Valley prior to boarding on a flight to China.
Zhang appealed for being not guilty this week at a hearing in San Jose. He had been temporarily provided with a public defender, but has got his own attorney, Daniel Olmos.
Olmos refused to answer any questions related to the case to the media. A spokesperson for the Northern District of California’s U.S. Attorney refused to answer on anything beyond the indictment.
To recall, the allegations filed in federal court of the U.S. suspected that an ex-employee, Xiaolang Zhang, revealed objectives to operate for an electric car startup in China and booked an eleventh-hour flight after stealing the blueprint of a circuit board for a self-driving vehicle.
A lawyer temporarily appointed to stand besides Zhang did not instantly answer to a question for comment earlier. Zhang’s indictment is set for July 27, 2018.
But for the first time, the complaint also gave a formal account of some data of the self-driving vehicle initiative. Almost 5,000 workers were authorized to access data about the initiative, comprising almost 2,700 veteran workers with authorization to top-class databases. The data base suggested that Apple might make a breakthrough in the self-driving car sector.
Daniel Elton, is a senior editor here at Uk Tabloid. Daniel writes about politics and policy with a focus on climate advocacy. Daniel previously at the New Republic and, and Self. Daniel can be reached by email.
