Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — An engineer who admitted he tried to sell fighter-pilot training software to the Chinese Navy has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.
Forty-four-year-old Xiaodong Sheldon Meng is the first person sentenced on the rare charge of committing economic espionage against the U.S. It's the most serious crime under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.
Economic espionage is the theft of trade secrets to benefit a foreign government.
In Meng's case, investigators say he went around giving sales pitches to Asian military officials for software stolen from his former employer, San Jose-based Quantum3D Inc.
