A Chinese national was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for stealing trade secrets valued at $1 billion from his employer, Phillips 66.
Hongjin Tan, 36, a U.S. legal permanent resident living in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, also was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution and spend three years on probation following his release from prison.
In November, Tan pleaded guilty to three counts related to the theft of trade secrets. He had faced up to 10 years in prison.
“Unscrupulous individuals like Hongjin Tan seek to steal American trade secrets to take home to China so they can replicate our technology,” said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores for the Northern District of Oklahoma in a statement.
In his guilty plea, Tan admitted to downloading several computer files from petroleum company Phillips 66’s research facility in Bartlesville.
Some of the files related to an unnamed research energy product aimed at the Chinese market, according to court files.
Phillips 66 began investigating Tan after he told his supervisors in December 2018 that he was resigning from the company and return to China to care for aging parents.
But the investigation uncovered that Tan had actually accepted an offer to work for a Chinese competitor of Phillips 66 in the area of energy development.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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