Counterintelligence — 2026-08-27

FBI Counterintelligence Division Secures Conviction of Engineer Who Stole Philips X-Ray Trade Secrets for Chinese Competitor

BLUFDomestic convictions punish the insiders but leave the stolen X-ray tube designs already operationalized in China, beyond any realistic US enforcement or recovery.

A federal jury in Chicago convicted former Philips Medical Systems engineer Chih-Yee Jen, 71, of Mequon, Wisconsin, on Friday of conspiracy to steal trade secrets and possession of stolen trade secrets, according to the Justice Department 1. Prosecutors said Jen, who worked at Philips' Aurora, Illinois X-ray tube facility, began sharing confidential Dunlee-brand documents with China-based Kunshan GuoLi Electronic Technology Co. and its vice president, Xiaoqin Du, starting in 2017 as Philips prepared to close the plant, and later joined a Kunshan GuoLi US subsidiary using data copied from internal Philips databases 12. Two other former Philips engineers, Vladimir Nevtonenko, 77, of Arlington Heights, Illinois, and Fince Tendian, 57, of Aurora, Illinois, pleaded guilty before trial to possessing the stolen material. U.S. District Judge Edmond E. Chang set Nevtonenko's sentencing for December 1 and Tendian's for December 8, with Jen's sentencing scheduled for January 5, 2027 1. Du, 64, of Suzhou, China, Kunshan GuoLi, and a related firm, Kunshan Yiyuan Medical Technology Co., were also indicted but remain on the court's Fugitive Calendar, unarraigned 12.

Analysis
Jen's conviction closes the domestic prosecution but leaves the transfer's principal beneficiaries untouched: Du and the two Kunshan GuoLi entities sit on the Fugitive Calendar in China, unarraigned and outside US enforcement reach. The verdict demonstrates FBI Counterintelligence's capacity to build cases from internal database exfiltration and insider recruitment at closing US manufacturing sites, a pattern that recurs as plants shutter and departing engineers carry proprietary designs to foreign buyers. Sentencing for Jen, Tendian, and Nevtonenko will fix the deterrent value of the case. The stolen X-ray tube designs have by now been integrated into Kunshan GuoLi's competing product line.

3 sources

Federal Jury in Chicago Convicts Engineer for Stealing Trade Secrets from Philips Medical Systems on Behalf of Chinese Competitor - Department of Justice
Former Philips engineer convicted of stealing trade secrets for China firm - The Washington Times
US convicts ex-Philips engineer for exposing X-ray secrets to competitor - The Register