Tricon and owner Haoyang Yu were charged in a federal court in Boston on Friday with illegally exporting integrated circuits that contained stolen trade circuits from a U.S. firm.
Tricon MMIC LLC and its owner, Haoyang Yu, were charged in a federal court in Boston on Friday with illegally exporting integrated circuits that contained stolen trade circuits from a U.S. firm.
Yu, 40, who also uses the aliases Jack Yu, Harry Yu and Jack Tricon, set up Lexington, Mass.-based Tricon MMIC in March 2017 while still serving as a design engineer with Norwood, Mass.-based semiconductor manufacturer Analog Devices Inc. (ADI). When he left ADI on July 31, 2017, he downloaded hundreds of files containing proprietary data on about 20 ADI monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) worth “millions of dollars,” according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Yu immediately began selling copies of the ADI circuits over the internet, investigators said. The circuits are controlled for their use in radio, cellular and satellite communications, as well as defense and aerospace applications.
From August 2017 to June 2019, Yu has sold parts that are identical or substantially similar to ADI products, which incorporate trade secrets stolen from his former employer, according to the charges.
He used Tricon to “illegally export several parts to Spain by concealing both his name and the export classification number of the parts being exported on the shipping documents,” the Justice Department said.
If convicted, Yu faces up to 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine on the charge of stealing, copying, downloading and possessing a trade secret. The charge of smuggling goods from the U.S. also provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.
The case was investigated by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security Office of Export Enforcement in Boston, as well as the Justice Department, FBI, Customs and Border Protection, Coast Guard Investigative Service and Defense Criminal Investigative Service, as well as state and local law enforcement.
