AMSC/Sinovel Industrial Espionage Thriller Takes a Procedural Detour, Threatening U.S. Criminal Prosecution

In a story that Hollywood would love to script, the U.S. Government charged Sinovel and its executives with soliciting the then-head of the Automation Engineering Department of AMSC’s Austrian subsidiary, AMSC Windtec GmbH, to steal AMSC’s source code in order that Sinovel might bypass a commercial relationship with AMSC and utilize AMSC’s trade secrets without paying for ongoing software licenses. 

On June 27, 2013, a grand jury in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin charged Chinese-wind-turbine-manufacturer Sinovel Wind Group Co., Ltd. (“Sinovel”), two of its high-ranking executives, Su Liying and Zhao Haichun, and a former high-level AMSC engineer, Dejan Karabasevic, of conspiring to steal and actually stealing AMSC’s trade secrets, engaging in criminal copyright infringement, and engaging in wire fraud.  The following facts are taken from the United States’ complaint and indictment.

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