Many of you may remember that between June 2018 and January this year, two former Apple employees were arrested (1, 2) after stealing company secrets allegedly related to Titan Project which involves the company's speculated autonomous car.
Ma, of course, sued both former Chinese-born employees: Xiaolang Zhang and Jizhong Chen; Now, however, the company is concerned that they may return to their home country while their care continues to be handled by the courts, as reported by the Reuters.
At a recent hearing at the California District Court, prosecutors argued that Zhang and Chen should continue to be monitored for justice as they can both leave the United States. The company's "fear" precedes the fact that, according to the defense attorney, both had family reasons to go to China, but neither intended to violate their conditions before the trial.
Assistant lawyer Marissa Harris argued that if any of the viruses escaped to China, it would be difficult (if not impossible) for federal authorities to secure their extradition in a possible (and future) trial.
The cases
As we said, Zhang was accused of stealing trade secrets from the Cupertino giant about Project Titan in mid-2018; Before being caught, he worked on Apple's computer team, where he designed and tested circuit boards to analyze sensor data in autonomous vehicles.
After Zhang announced his plans to leave Ma to start work at XMotors (a Chinese company), the company launched an investigation to examine the former employee's suspicious behavior; In it, it was verified that he had subtracted prototype designs and technologies for autonomous cars. Zhang was arrested at a US airport in July 2018, trying to go to China.
A few months later, some Apple employees caught Chen taking pictures in a restricted workspace of the company. After further investigating this case, the company found that his personal computer contained “thousands” of files related to the technologies developed at Project Titan, including manuals, photographs, and diagrams. Later it turned out that he was also applying for a job at another unspecified Chinese company.
There is no information on when the cases will be judged; Nonetheless, Ma seems to be quite determined to "teach" these former employees as well as to show that this should not happen again.
via MacRumors | image: Mark Lennihan / AP
