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 A former General Motors Co (GM.N) engineer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and her husband was sentenced to three years for conspiring to steal trade secrets for use in China, federal prosecutors said.

Investigators accused Du of copying more than 16,000 GM files soon after the automaker in January 2005 gave her a severance offer. They said Qin later claimed, while pitching his services, to have invented some of the stolen GM technology.

Both defendants [Du and Qin] are U.S. citizens, and their case is part of a crackdown  on trade secret theft, whether involving China or other countries.

U.S. corporate victims of trade-secret theft have included General Motors, Ford, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Motorola, Boeing and Cargill as well as lesser-known companies.

The White House issued a report outlining a new strategic plan to combat trade secret theft from U.S. businesses, stating that “Trade secret theft threatens American businesses, undermines national security, and places the security of the U.S. economy in jeopardy.”

Just a thought.