14-year sentence for engineer in China trade secrets case

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A chemical engineer has been sentenced to 14 years in prison over what prosecutors say was a scheme to steal trade secrets about materials used in cans for soda and other drinks to benefit the Chinese government and a Chinese company. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Xiaorong “Shannon” You of Lansing, Michigan, was sentenced Monday by a federal judge in Greeneville, Tennessee, after a jury convicted her last month of charges that include possession of stolen trade secrets and economic espionage. Prosecutors say You accessed secrets about BPA-free internal coatings of beverage cans while working at Coca-Cola in Atlanta and Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, Tennessee. They say the trade secrets cost major chemical companies nearly $120 million to develop.