Couple indicted in plot to sell GM hybrid secrets to Chinese

[DainBramaged]

General Motors hasn't exactly burned up with the auto world over much of the past decade when it comes to gas-electric hybrids, but apparently that allegedly didn't stop an outgoing employee from trying to make off with whatever secrets the automaker had and sell them to the Chinese.

A federal grand jury in Detroit has indicted a former General Motors employee and her husband in an alleged scheme to steal information about hybrid vehicles, the Associated Press reports (via the Detroit Free Press.)

Shanshan Du is accused of copying thousands of GM documents in January 2005, five days after getting a severance offer from the automaker. The government says the conspiracy began in 2003. The government says her husband, Yu Qin (Kin), subsequently made a deal to provide hybrid technology to a Chinese company.

Prosecutors say the Troy, Mich., couple shredded documents and dumped them in a bin behind a store in May 2006 after the grand jury sought information.

http://www.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/Index