Stealing is not only bad, as our parents would tell us, but it is also illegal. If we also talk about theft of confidential information from leading companies like Apple, things get even more serious. And that’s what happened now with Xiaolang Zhang, who was working in the initial development process of the now-canceled Apple Car.
Zhang was arrested in 2018 and faces a sentence of up to ten years in prison for revealing Apple secrets. However, only until now has the decision of the Californian courts been known, reducing this expectation to 120 days in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine. A decision that is now attracting more attention, if possible, due to the aforementioned cancellation of the Apple Car.
A seemingly normal signing for one of Apple’s most ambitious projects
Xiaolang Zhang’s history with Apple dates back to the end of 2015. An engineer by profession and with experience in the automotive sector, it was in December of the same year that Zhang joined the ranks of Apple in which he was appointed Project Titan and with which it was planned to make an electric and autonomous car a reality under the Apple brand.
Among these, the project was still in its infancy. Based on the leaks, it is estimated that it could have started in 2015, or even 2014, but not much earlier. What development has changed is a story with a tragic (and costly) ending. The fact is that when Zhang came to him, there was already an established roadmap and hundreds of development-related documents that, of course, were confidential and signed by the few people who had access to them.
At first glance, nothing caught Zhang’s attention. Since this Apple car project is so secretive, they haven’t even officially commented on it, and now that it’s canceled, the work that the engineer was developing on it is not known in detail. It only emerged that among his dedications was designing the technology responsible for obtaining information from the car’s sensors.
And the arrest took place…
July 7, 2018, Xiaolang Zhang He was arrested by the FBI at the San Jose (California) airport before boarding for China.. The event was by no means a coincidence. Of these, it was said that it was a peaceful arrest and that there was no major incident, although there was a very big stir in the media which would soon have his explanation.
One of the many concepts that inspired the Apple Car, the design of which was never known (Image: Vanarama)
A few months before his arrest, in April, Zhang had taken a short paternity leave, then announce to Apple that he would leave the company to work at Xmotors, a Chinese startup focused on developing technologies for autonomous vehicles. While this might already be a suspicious indication, it was also not unusual. That a worker specialized in a certain segment goes to another company dedicated to that same field is not so strange and is in fact generally common. Less if, as in his case, he also claimed to be able to get closer to his family.
What aroused suspicion was Zhang’s previous activity before announcing his departure.. There was very suspicious activity in his actions, resulting in several visits to the office over the past few weeks and the downloading of confidential documents from the network for no apparent reason. Actions that made no sense for the tasks assigned to me at that time.
With all the information being pulled from Apple’s servers, Zhang leaving the company and wanting to go to China so quickly was strange. Very rare
Another very suspicious fact was that The recording cameras also showed him taking a box of a suspicious size from one of the laboratories.
Now that months have passed since this resignation, Zhang was planning to return to his home country of China, where he already held this position at Xmotors and that’s when the arrest took place . Apple never clarified the very specific details of the case, but since it was public that Zhang was an employee of the company, they were forced to come forward, alluding to the fact that the company “takes very seriously confidentiality and the protection of intellectuals are taken seriously. property”. They also assured that they were aware of the matter and asked this engineer and any other person involved to “account for their actions”.
Accusation, a long investigation and a final conviction
As is often the case in any case of this magnitude, the investigation did not last two days. During these years, the FBI and the courts were responsible for collecting all possible data on Xiaolang Zhang’s alleged theft of confidential information. This included overhauling all of his and even his wife’s computer equipment.
Precisely Files containing confidential information about the project were found on his wife’s laptop.. There, Zhang transferred up to 40 GB of data stored in a folder he named “RECENT” and 60% of the contents of which were “highly problematic” according to the FBI. One of the most notable was a document of approximately 25 pages in which technical drawings of the engineering of the vehicle that Apple was developing were discussed.
At that moment, far from recognizing it, Zhang pleaded not guilty. Reuters reported on the case just days after the arrest. Neither the accused nor his lawyer wished to make statements. The investigation continued over time and It was not until August 2022 that Zhang pleaded guilty. given the evidence of the facts presented by the prosecutors.
The final sentence, however, took a little longer to arrive. It was February of this year, specifically on the 5th. In the sentence handed down by the Northern District Court of California, the court considered the charges proven and, after Zhang admitted the facts, sentenced him to four months in prison. which will be followed by three years of supervised release in the United States, as well as having to pay costs amounting to $146,984.
There are theories (that you wouldn’t suspect) that everything could have ended up in XIaomi’s hands, but it hasn’t really been proven that the engineer even sold the documents
Regarding the stolen hardware, it’s unclear whether he ended up selling it to Xmotors or another Chinese company. In fact, there is a curious relationship to say the least with Xiaomi, which recently presented its first vehicle, the Xiaomi SU7. This startup (Xmotors) was financially supported by men like Lei Jun, one of the founders and current CEO of Xiaomi.
As expected given the recent cancellation of Apple’s car and the announcement of Xiaomi’s, some have theorized a lot about whether Xiaomi might have benefited in some way from these Apple development secrets. And the truth is, despite this convoluted relationship, there is no proof. But there is no evidence that they ended up in the hands of Xiaomi, or even that Zhang ultimately managed to sell data to a Chinese company.
Cover image | Vanarama
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