Engineer guilty of stealing medical trade secrets for China

A federal jury in Chicago convicted a former engineer at Philips Medical Systems of two counts related to stealing the company’s trade secrets, the Justice Department said Monday. Chih-Yee Jen, 71, of Mequon, Wis., passed proprietary information to a Chinese company competing with Philips, the department said. Jen will be sentenced for the crimes in January 2027.

Jen worked at a Philips facility in Aurora, Ill. The facility developed and manufactured X-ray tubes used for CT scan machines. A Chinese company, Kunshan GuoLi Electronic Technology Co Ltd., contacted Jen and asked him to steal confidential information so the company could create similar technology for a U.S. subsidiary.

Jen copied the information from internal Philips databases and began working for the Chinese company’s subsidiary. He also recruited several other Philips engineers to work there, according to the Justice Department. Two of his recruits have pleaded guilty to charges similar to Jen’s.

Why was the Justice Department involved in prosecuting Jen? Giving trade secrets to a foreign competitor undercut American jobs and threatened the United States’ technical edge, U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros said. Such convictions are important matters of national economic security, he said.