Former Metaldyne Employees Indicted For Theft Of Trade Secrets

usdoj.gov, Oct 18, 2006

A federal grand jury Indictment was unsealed today in Detroit charging one former Vice President and two former senior employees of Metaldyne Corporation with plotting to steal and stealing Metaldyne Corporation's secret process for manufacturing heavy automotive parts from powdered metal, and providing this information to a Chinese competitor. Metaldyne Corporation is headquartered in Plymouth, Michigan, and is one of only two automotive parts manufacturers in the world to have developed a process to successfully fabricate powdered metal into large, heavy-duty automotive parts, such as connecting rods.

Charged in the 64-count Indictment were Anne Lockwood, 53, formerly a Vice President for Sales at Metaldyne; her husband, Michael Haehnel, 51, formerly a senior engineer at Metaldyne, both of Rockford, Michigan; and Fuping Liu, 42, a former metallurgist for Metaldyne, of Westland, Michigan. Liu worked out of Metaldyne’s Shanghai, China, office until April 2004.

According to the Indictment, after Lockwood left her position at Metaldyne in early 2004, she began planning with Fuping Liu to develop Chinese powdered metal manufacturers who could displace Metaldyne as the supplier of various kinds of powdered-metal manufactured parts, including connecting rods, to U.S. auto and equipment manufacturers. A company set up by Lockwood, and also involving Fuping Liu and Michael Haehnel, was to receive commissions based on the expected sales by the Chinese companies. Read more at usdoj.gov