On Monday, a former Apple Inc. engineer pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets, one of two people accused of stealing trade secrets from the iPhone maker’s nascent self-driving car program.
US federal prosecutors said Xiaolang Zhang dumped Apple’s plan for a self-driving circuit after he revealed his intentions to work for a Chinese self-driving car startup and booked a last-minute flight to China. .
He was arrested at the San Jose airport after going through a security check.
Zhang initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but according to court documents on Monday, he had reached a plea deal with prosecutors and changed his plea to guilty. The plea agreement is sealed and the sentence is set for November.
Zhang’s lawyer confirmed the plea deal but declined further comment. Apple and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jizhong Chen, the other former Apple engineer accused of stealing trade secrets, pleaded not guilty. He has a court hearing set for August 29th.