The FBI released a video to NBC on Thursday showing a sting operation that caught Chinese CEO Ji Li Huang of Ningbo Oriental Crafts and his employee Xiao Guang Qi performing corporate espionage.
"The executive, the CEO, and his translator all shake hands before the CEO pulls $30,000 in cash from a paper wrapper—a first payment on a total of $100,000 allegedly promised—and the American executive produces a file of documents about the manufacturing process he says are "secret" and "confidential."
Minutes later, FBI agents knock on the door and, with a gun drawn, arrest the executive and his translator.
The video release is part of a broad FBI awareness campaign beginning Thursday to alert American companies that the trade secrets thefts are becoming more brazen and their targets becoming more broad than ever before. The awareness campaign will consist of briefings for trade associations, social media outreach, and FBI field offices reaching out to companies in their jurisdiction, the FBI says."
The two men were jailed and then deported, receiving fines of $250,000 and $20,000, respectively. They are no longer allowed in the United States.