NISKAYUNA, N.Y. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say an engineer at General Electric’s upstate New York turbine manufacturing plant has been charged with stealing the company’s trade secrets.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Wednesday 55-year-old Xiaoqing Zheng (JOW’-shing zehng) removed electronic files with company trade secrets involving its turbine technologies and hid data files in a digital photograph of a sunset. Prosecutors say he then emailed the picture to his email account.
FBI agents took Zheng away in handcuffs earlier Wednesday at his home in Niskayuna (nihs-kee-YOO’-nuh), 10 miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Albany.
The neighboring city of Schenectady (skeh-NEHK’-ta-dee) is home to Boston-based GE’s power division, which makes turbines.
During a brief court appearance Zheng was ordered detained. He’s scheduled to return to court Thursday, when he’s expected to get a lawyer.
GE says it has cooperated in the FBI investigation.
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