Ex-Apple employee, Xiaolang Zhang has pleaded not guilty to charges by the FBI that he stole trade secrets related to the Cupertino firm’s Project Titan Autonomous vehicle project. Zhang was arrested last week.
Federal officials on July 12 indicted Xiaolang Zhang on a single count of trade secret theft, alleging that Zhang had stolen a 25-page blueprint for a circuit board designed to be used in an autonomous vehicle, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Zhang plead not guilty during a hearing on Monday, held in San Jose, California. While details of the plea were not available, it is reported that Zhang has retained lawyer Danial Olmos to defend him against the charges.
Zhang pleaded not guilty at a hearing on Monday in San Jose. He had been provisionally appointed a public defender, but has retained his own lawyer, Daniel Olmos. Olmos declined to comment on the case. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California declined to comment beyond the indictment.
Federal officials allege that Zhang stole trade secrets from Apple, including a 25-page blueprint for a circuit board to be used in autonomous vehicles.
Zhang could face as much as 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment and three years of supervised release.
Olmos declined to comment on the case, as did a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.