Jizhong Chen

Jizhong "Henry" Chen (born June 1962) is a former engineer of Apple Inc. He is federally charged with stealing trade secrets related to Apple's electric car project.

Early life and education
Chen was born in China and received a bachelors degree in engineering from in 1984. He received a masters degree in electronics, engineering, and communications from the of the  in 1987. Chen emigrated from China in 1991 to become a research scientist at the Institute of Laser Engineering at in Japan. He later immigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He maintained a residence in, where his wife and son live.

Career
Chen became a senior systems scientist at the  in  in 2000. He joined as an electron optics design engineer in 2004, and then  as a systems engineer in 2008.

Apple Inc.
Chen began working for Apple in June 2018. As a new employee, he received in-person secrecy training at the company on June 13th. In December of that year, Chen was placed on notice that his work performance needed to improve. Suspicions were raised on January 11, 2019 when he was caught allegedly taking photos with a wide angle lens within a secure facility housing the confidential self-driving car project.

Investigation
Apple alleged that over 2,000 files of confidential information from Chen's work computer were backed up onto his personal computer, which was against company policy. He was also alleged to have been taking photos of sensitive information displayed on his work computer screen, a tactic to bypass detection of screenshots on Apple's monitored networks. He was alleged to have applied for jobs at two other companies, including a Chinese autonomous vehicle film.

Federal charges and arrest
Chen was charged in federal court with theft of trade secrets on January 22, 2019. He was then arrested by the on the following January 23rd, right before he was scheduled to board a flight to, China. He was ordered to surrender his passport after posting 500,000 bail and was denied a motion to avoid location monitoring. Chen pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on February 7 and retained Daniel Olmos as an attorney. During a subsequent search of Chen's residence in Maryland, a confidential document from about the  program was found.