A Canadian-China Citizen Arrested In US For Allegedly Stealing Tesla's Trade Secrets

Last year's launch of the Cybertruck. (Doc. Tesla)

JAKARTA - A Canadian and Chinese man was arrested in New York, USA on charges of stealing and selling Tesla's trading secrets data to digital media.

The identity of the aggrieved company has not been published, but many suspect that Tesla's Hibar Systems is the victim.

The law enforcement officer who disguised himself as a buyer managed to thwart the trade in the confidential data.

Launching CarsCops, Thursday, March 21, the defendant named Klaus Pflugbeil and 58 years old met with officers on Long Island. It is known that he and his colleague, Yilong Shao, founded a company in China with branches in Canada, Germany, and Brazil.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen confirmed that the theft of trade secrets weakens the superiority of American technology and the Department of Justice will take firm action against the perpetrators.

Pflugbeil faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The stolen information is allegedly used to produce electric vehicle batteries. Pflugbeil and Shao are believed to have received this information while working at automated precision distribution pump manufacturers and battery assembly lines in Canada.

While reported by ANTARA, Thursday, March 21, the Justice Department claims that Pflugbeil and Shao not only founded the company using Tesla's secrets, which have been invested in 13 million US dollars, but are also looking for additional original images to emulate.

Pflugbeil once sent an email containing Tesla's secret images to manufacturers of equipment to produce spare parts.

With this incident, many people helped investigators uncover the case when their company posted an online ad stating, "Are you looking for meter pumps and spare parts (victim-1 companies)? No need to look anymore."

The continued trade secret theft related to components and battery assembly builds up the superiority of American technology and the Department of Justice will hold those trying to defraud our country's economic potential and threaten national security, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Department of Justice's national security division said.