A Chinese cancer researcher, Yunhai Li, has been charged with theft of trade secrets and tampering with a government record after allegedly attempting to take sensitive medical information to China. Li, 35, had been working at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, for three years.
According to a news release from Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare’s office, Li was involved in a project funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. He faces two charges: theft of trade secrets, which is a third-degree felony carrying a penalty of two to ten years in prison and fines up to $10,000; and tampering with a government record, classified as a class A misdemeanor.
Authorities say that on July 9, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations found evidence that “Li was attempting to take sensitive medical information abroad during an inspection of his belongings,” according to the release. At the time, Li was attempting to travel to China.
Li’s work focused on breast cancer research while he was on a non-immigrant research scholar exchange visa provided by the U.S. State Department. Court documents state that Li saved sensitive data on his Google Drive during his employment at MD Anderson. When confronted by the institution, he deleted those files but had already uploaded them onto another drive hosted by Baidu—a Chinese technology company.
The materials included “unpublished research data and articles representing trade secrets, including material-restricted confidential research data, writings, drawings and models.” The discovery was made during the July 9 search.
“We were able to detain him as he was trying to get on a flight to China,” Teare said in a statement reported by KRIV-TV. “There was a pretty good chance that he was going to get deported or leave the country — so we needed to file something,” he added. “We needed to make sure that he was going to stay here, the information was going to stay here, and he was going to be held accountable.”
If convicted on both charges, Li could face up to 11 years in prison and combined fines reaching $14,000.
This incident follows several recent cases involving alleged espionage related to trade secrets by Chinese nationals.
