Plano, TX - There are plenty of questions involving the Plano woman accused of trying to smuggle military grade equipment to Russia...
What was the west Plano "girl next door", who happens to be a Latvian expatriate, doing with the high-tech scopes? Immigration and customs agents seized Fermanova's luggage, and found at least one Raptor Night Vision 4x Scope. The scopes, which are on the federal no-export munitions list, cost about $13,000 each.
Catherine Smit is a security expert with 20 years experience and she agrees that Fermanova's story doesn't add up. "Anyone who has been asked to carry something with removed serial numbers you know that you're not supposed to have them in your possession," she explained. "She [Fermanova] was more likely a patsy for someone who's involved in industrial espionage." (more)
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MI - Former General Motors (GM) employee Shanshan Du and her husband Yu Qin have been indicted in Michigan for allegedly stealing hybrid car technology information from GM. They have both been charged with conspiracy to possess trade secrets without authorization, unauthorized possession of trade secrets and wire fraud; one of them has also been charged with obstruction of justice. (more)
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Huawei has denied being involved in a plan by former Motorola staff to steal confidential information and use it to set up their own company in competition with Motorola. Last week, a modified lawsuit by Motorola alleged that former employee Shaowei Pan secretly reported to Ren Zhengfei, Huawei's founder and chairman, while he was working at the US company. Motorola claims that the defendants were developing a microcell base station, and later passed technical details over to Huawei. (more)
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Toyota is said to be planning a U.S. production date for the fourth-generation Prius, but it won't arrive here until 2016. And would you be curious to know that the first Prius lost $28,000 per copy? That's what you learn through industrial espionage, says Kinder Essington over on PoliticsAndCars. (more)
