A former engineer from the San Francisco Bay Area has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison for stealing trade secret technology developed for missile launch detection and related military uses. Chenguang Gong, 59, of San Jose, received a 46-month sentence from United States District Judge John F. Walter. In addition to his prison term, Gong was ordered to pay $77,408 in restitution and fined $100,000.
Gong pleaded guilty on July 21 to one count of theft of trade secrets. Prosecutors said he transferred more than 3,600 files from his employer—a Los Angeles-area research and development company—onto personal storage devices during his employment in 2023.
The stolen files included blueprints for advanced infrared sensors used in space-based systems designed to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The technology also enables U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming heat-seeking missiles and deploy countermeasures by jamming their infrared tracking abilities. Some of these documents were later found at Gong’s temporary residence in Thousand Oaks.
Gong began working as an application-specific integrated circuit design manager at the victim company in January 2023. He was responsible for designing and verifying infrared sensors used in national defense applications. According to court records, between March 30 and April 26—when he was terminated—Gong transferred thousands of files from his work laptop to three personal storage devices. More than half of these transfers occurred after he had accepted a job offer from a competitor.
Many of the stolen documents contained proprietary information about readout integrated circuits critical for detecting missile launches or tracking threats under low visibility conditions. Other materials detailed next-generation sensor development intended for improved detection capabilities against low observable targets and increased survivability in space environments. The company valued these trade secrets at hundreds of millions of dollars; several documents were marked with warnings such as “PROPRIETARY INFORMATION” or “EXPORT CONTROLLED.”
Investigators also found that Gong had submitted multiple applications between 2014 and 2022 to talent recruitment programs run by the Chinese government aimed at acquiring advanced scientific expertise for economic and military advancement. In one instance while employed at a Dallas-based IT firm, Gong proposed manufacturing high-performance analog-to-digital converters similar to those produced by his employer for use by a Chinese research institute involved with both civilian and military products.
In another case from September 2020, Gong applied to develop night vision image sensors for both military goggles and civilian uses—citing specific model numbers linked to his previous work at an international defense contractor.
Authorities reported that Gong traveled to China seeking funding through these talent programs, emphasizing the direct impact such technologies could have on radar accuracy, range, and missile navigation systems used by militaries.
In an email translated from Chinese dated 2019, Gong wrote that he “took a risk” traveling due to his position with an American defense contractor but believed he could help advance China’s capabilities: “because [he] worked for…an American military industry company” and thought he could “do something” for China’s “high-end military integrated circuits.”
Prosecutors argued: “[Gong’s] conduct is particularly egregious because his deliberate and systematic theft of [the victim company’s] trade secrets is not an isolated incident; it represents the culmination of a long pattern of stealing proprietary technology from U.S. companies to benefit the [People Republic of China’s] military.”
The investigation was led by the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office Counterintelligence Task Force with support from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and Homeland Security Investigations. The FBI’s San Francisco Field Office and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California also contributed substantially.
Assistant United States Attorneys David C. Lachman (Terrorism & Export Crimes Section) and Nisha Chandran (Major Frauds Section) prosecuted the case alongside Department of Justice Trial Attorney Brendan P. Geary (National Security Division).
