2 Chinese Firms Charged in Theft of Medical Firm’s Trade Secrets

February 16, 2025 TruthUSA

Four individuals were also charged, including the vice president of one of the accused Chinese firms.

Two Chinese companies and four individuals have been charged for alleged illegal possession of trade secrets related to imaging devices manufactured by Philips Medical Systems, according to an indictment returned in federal court in Chicago.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois announced the case in a statement on Feb. 13. The trade secrets involved Philips’ X-ray tube products, which prosecutors said can be used in computed tomography (CT) machines commonly used in medical institutions to obtain cross-sectional images of patients’ bodies.

The defendants allegedly targeted Philips’ facility in Aurora, Illinois, which was used to develop and manufacture the company’s X-ray tubes, according to the indictment.

Philips closed its Dundee facility in Aurora in 2018, according to the indictment.

Two of the defendants—China-based Kunshan GuoLi Electronic Technology and its Vice President Xiaoqin Du, 63—established a rival X-ray tube development company in Aurora. In 2017, Kunshan GuoLi and Du recruited and hired three engineers from Philips’ Aurora facility and they started working for the Chinese-founded company in Aurora in January 2018.

The three engineers—Chih-Yee Jen, 69, of Mequon, Wisconsin; Fince Tendian, 56, of Aurora; and Vladimir Nevtonenko, 76, of Arlington Heights, Illinois—were also named as defendants.

Jen started working for Philips in around 2006 and left the company in December 2017. Before the end of his employment, Jen allegedly make copies of X-ray trade secret information from Philips’ internal database without authorization, acting on Kunshan GuoLi’s behalf, according to the indictment.

Jen allegedly shared the stolen information with Tendian and Nevtonenko. Prosecutors said all three used what was stolen for their work at the Chinese-founded company.

According to the indictment, Tendian and Nevtonenko started working for Philips around 1998.

The Chinese-founded company in Aurora was dissolved in November 2022, prosecutors said.

Additionally, Jen allegedly used the stolen trade secret for his work at Kunshan YiYuan Medical Technology, another defendant named in the indictment.

According to the indictment, GuoLi established YiYuan in May 2018 and transferred its medical X-ray business to the new company.

On its website, YiYuan is introduced as a company that has relied on GuoLi’s electro-vacuum technology platform, which is a culmination of four decades of taking part in China’s “military-civilian” fusion strategy.

The U.S. State Department warns on its website how China uses “licit and illicit means” via its “military-civil” fusion strategy to acquire the world’s cutting-edge technologies in order to “achieve military dominance.”

YiYuan also states on its Chinese-language website that it was selected as one of the incubating “unicorn companies” by the municipal government of Suzhou in China in 2021.

China’s state-run media Xinhua defined “unicorn companies” as start-up firms valued at more than $1 billion. It reported in May 2024 that Beijing had 369 unicorn companies following government-directed efforts to foster firms in the science and technology sector.

“Beijing is actively building a long-term ecosystem to support the growth of unicorn companies. Last year, it maximized the release of policy dividends for unicorn enterprises in terms of innovation support, talent settlement, financial support, and market cultivation,” Xinhua said.

All six defendants are charged with conspiracy to unlawfully possess trade secrets. Jen faces an additional charge of possession or attempted possession of a stolen trade secret.

During their arraignments in federal court in Chicago, Jen, Tendian, and Nevtonenko pleaded not guilty.

Tendian’s attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Epoch Times in an email that his client is innocent.

“My client was a dedicated employee and engaged in no misconduct of any kind, particularly no criminal conduct and she looks forward to being vindicated,” Leinenweber wrote.

It’s not known if other defendants have attorneys.

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