MOSCOW, July 11 (RAPSI) – A US court has sentenced a naturalized American citizen to 15 years in prison for selling industrial secrets to companies controlled by the Chinese government, AP writes.

Walter Liew, 56, born on a farm in Malaysia to Chinese parents and the holder of advanced degrees in chemical engineering, allegedly received $28 million for selling China a proprietary formula to DuPont Co.’s pigment technology.

The technology makes whites whiter for a variety of products including cars, paper and many other coated or painted items.

Encouraged by China’s ambition to build a DuPont-like factory to manufacture the white pigment known as titanium dioxide, Liew and his wife, Christina Liew, started a small company in California in the 1990s. They hired retired DuPont engineers and allegedly paid them thousands of dollars for confidential company documents that described the pigment technology.

One of these engineers committed suicide in early 2012 on the day he was to sign a plea bargain acknowledging his role in the conspiracy.
US District Court Judge Jeffrey White said in Oakland on Thursday that Liew had “turned against his adopted country over greed.”

Liew was ordered to pay $28.3 million to DuPont, and his engineering company was fined $18.9 million. But White expressed doubt that Liew would pay much of the fine because the money “has been spirited out of the country.”

According to Reuters, Liew stole the secret technology for the Chinese government-controlled Pangang Group Co. Ltd. based in Sichuan.