Maubo, right, and his lawyer, Richard Roper, leave a Federal courtroom in New York on September 11, 2019.
Bo Mao, an associate professor at Xiamen University in China accused of helping Chinese telecoms giant Huawei steal American technology, was released from prison yesterday after pleading guilty on December 4 to lying to the FEDERAL Bureau of Investigation and making “false statements”. He is expected to return to China on the 16th.
Before sentencing, Judge Pamela Chen of federal Court for the Eastern District of New York routinely asked Mr. MAO if he had anything to say. Instead, Mr. MAO expressed no remorse for his crimes but thanked a number of people, including the team of lawyers huawei paid for him at Miko, the people who bailed him out and the judge in court.
According to federal prosecutors, Mr. Maobo struck a deal with CNEX Labs, a Silicon Valley technology company, ostensibly to gain access to its OCSSD circuit boards for academic research, but ended up sharing proprietary information with Huawei, an electronic storage technology that was patented by the American company.
It had planned for years, the prosecutors said, and that its research required Maobo to deliver test reports, called benchmarks, that included information called “benchmarks,” and that When It obtained CNEX Labs’ OCSSD boards, It guaranteed that it would keep the company’s secrets confidential.
Maubo was a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Arlington when he was arrested in August 2019. After his arrest, he told FBI agents that he did not know anyone at the University of Texas who owned the circuit board. In fact, he lied. When he pleaded guilty earlier this month, he said he had obtained a circuit board when he made the false statement.
In sentencing, Judge Chen said that while MAO was guilty of only one count of making “false statements,” his crime was “broader and worse.” He played a role in the company’s big plan, and in essence, he helped huawei cover up the seriousness of his crime.
Although MAO Bo’s defense lawyer said he had been disgraced and was being punished. Judge Chen disagreed, sharply noting that Mr MAO’s return to China “may even be seen as a patriot”.
Judge Chen also singled out MAO Bo for showing no remorse. “I’m disappointed about it, frankly,” she said.
In a letter to the court before sentencing, prosecutors dropped the more serious wire fraud conspiracy charge against Mr Maobo, in part because of the wasteful consumption of public funds.
Mr Chen said Mr MAO’s role was secondary and that he appeared to have benefited only indirectly in the Huawei case, including possibly through career development.
MAO received his BACHELOR’s degree in computer Science and Technology from Northeast University in Shenyang, China, in 2005, and his doctorate from Huazhong University in Wuhan in 2010. In the fall of 2018, MAO moved from Xiamen to dezhou University as a visiting professor.
In 2018, CNEX sued MAO and Huawei in a civil lawsuit for technology theft. In 2019, a civil court ruled in CNEX’s favor. Following the launch of federal criminal charges, Maobo was arrested in 2019 just before he was due to return to the mainland. The case was settled yesterday, and MAO Bo is expected to return to China on December 16.
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