MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal grand jury in Wisconsin has indicted a Chinese wind turbine company and three individuals for allegedly stealing trade secrets from an American software company.
The indictment handed up in Madison alleges Sinovel Wind Group and the three individuals stole proprietary wind turbine software technology from Massachusetts-based AMSC, formerly known as American Superconductor Inc., cheating the American company out of more than $800 million.
It alleges the defendants stole software that was developed in Wisconsin by downloading it from an AMSC computer in Middleton, Wis., to a computer in Austria.
None of the individual defendants is in custody. The Justice Department says two of them are Sinovel Wind Group employees who live in China, while one who now lives in Serbia formerly worked for an AMSC subsidiary in Austria.