Niskayuna Man Sentenced for Stealing GE’s Trade Secrets

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Yang Sui, age 43, of Niskayuna, New York, was sentenced today to 1 year of probation, and to pay a $5,000 fine, for stealing trade secrets. 

The announcement was made by Elizabeth C. Coombe, Attorney for the United States Acting Under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, and Thomas F. Relford, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his earlier guilty plea, Sui admitted that between about January 1, 2015 and December 21, 2017, he stole multiple electronic files that contained the General Electric Company’s trade secrets surrounding the research, development, design and manufacture of its silicon carbide metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). 

MOSFETs are small electronic semiconductors/switches that regulate the flow of electricity through devices; they are used in a variety of products. 

Sui further admitted that in about 2017, he was developing a business plan to start his own company whose purpose was to manufacture and sell MOSFETs.

There was no evidence that Sui transferred the MOSFET trade secrets to anyone else.

This case was investigated by the FBI, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Belliss and Trial Attorney Matthew Chang of the Department of Justice’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, part of the National Security Division.