U.S. Prosecutors Say Video Game Maker's Secrets Swiped
U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that a staff member of video game maker Machine Zone has been charged with stealing trade secrets after learning he was to lose his job.
Jing Zeng, 42, could be sentenced to a maximum of ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000 if convicted in the case filed in U.S. federal court in San Francisco.
Zeng downloaded more than 100 files containing proprietary information from a confidential data base at the Northern California company behind "Game of War: Fire Age," U.S. attorney Melinda Haag and San Francisco FBI special agent in charge David Johnson said.
Zeng used a company laptop to download the digital files, transferred them to an external storage drive, then wiped and reformatted the laptop before returning it to Machine Zone, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday.
Zeng was arrested as he prepared to board a flight from San Francisco to China on August 20, prosecutors said.
Zeng was released on $100,000 bail and placed on electronic monitoring pending trial.
"Game of War" is a popular massive multi-player online action strategy game for play on computers or mobile devices, and is known for ads starring model and actress Kate Upton.
Source: Agence France Presse
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