A former Indiana scientist has been accused of illegally sending trade secrets worth $300 million to China and Germany. A federal indictment alleges that Kexue Huang, who was born in China, passed on proprietary information about the development of organic pesticides to Hunan Normal University while he worked as a researcher for Dow AgroSciences in Indiana from 2003 to 2008. Dow Agrosciences is a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co.

 

An AP report said that Huang, a Canadian citizen with permanent U.S. resident status, used a "patient and calculated" plan to "drain" the Indianapolis-based company of technology that took 20 years to develop. The indictment alleges that Huang published a paper in China about the organic pesticides and also directed students at Hunan Normal in further research.

 

The report noted that e-mails showed Huang was developing an operation to market the pesticides in China, where he stood to make millions of dollars. The FBI believed that Huang stole samples of the bacterial strain used in the pesticides and smuggled them to China in his son's suitcase.