The trial of Xiaorong You is set to begin today, April 6, in Greenville, TN. She is accused of trade secret theft and economic espionage after allegedly stealing bisphenol-A-free (BPA-free) technologies owned by several companies, including her former employers Coca-Cola and Eastman Chemical Company. The value placed on the development of the stolen technologies is $119.6 million. Other affected companies include Azko-Nobel, Dow Chemical, PPG, TSI, Sherwin Williams and ToyoChem.
The details of the case suggest that the damages You is allegedly responsible for could have been minimized if better real-time insider threat detection methods had been in place. They also outline possible motives for the theft of the intellectual property: ego and money.
You (a.k.a. Shannon You) is a naturalized US citizen with a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from Lehigh University. She has worked in US industry since May 1992.
You originally faced a nine-count grand jury indictment in February 2019 within the US District Court in the Eastern District of Tennessee for her actions involved in the theft of trade secrets. In August 2020, a superseding indictment was filed that added charges related to economic espionage.
You worked for Coca-Cola from December 2012 through August 2017 as a principal engineer for global research and then from September 2017 through June 2018 for Eastman Chemical Company as a packaging application development manager. In both roles she was one of a handful of employees with access to trade secrets and inter-company trade secret exchanges. When she departed Coca-Cola, You signed a statement that attested she did not retain trade secret information owned by Coca-Cola and in exchange received a check for $39,912—which appears to have been her last paycheck from the company.
In the summer of 2017, You applied for China’s Thousand Talent program. As the application proceeded, her co-conspirator Xiangchen Liu, a Chinese national, informed her that she had to submit false information to the PRC government to increase the chances of You being given the award. The Chinese government has used this program to bring advanced technologies into China from abroad. The Department of Justice has successfully prosecuted cases with this program at the nexus of the prosecution.