Jizhong Chen

Jizhong Chen is a former engineer of Apple Inc. He is federally charged with stealing trade secrets related to Apple's electric car project.

Background
Chen was born in China and emigrated in 1991 to the United States, where he became a citizen. He maintained a residence in, where his wife and son live.

Career
Chen had worked as an engineer for and.

Apple Inc.
Chen began working for Apple in 2018. As a new employee, he received in-person secrecy training at the company on June 13, 2018. Suspicions were raised on January 11, 2019 when Chen 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.