## Facts

- Dongfan “Greg” Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen and longtime Boeing/Rockwell engineer, worked on aerospace projects including the space shuttle and later returned as a contractor after the Columbia crash.
- A federal investigation led agents to search Chung’s home in 2006, where they found more than 300,000 pages of Boeing/Rockwell technical documents stored in concealed areas.
- Agents observed Chung discarding Boeing technical documents hidden within Chinese-language newspapers.
- The prosecution focused on six documents alleged to contain Boeing trade secrets involving phased-array antenna technology related to the space shuttle and the Delta IV rocket.
- The government presented evidence of Chung’s long-term correspondence and interactions with Chinese officials and asserted he provided them with technological information.
- Chung claimed he retained documents to write a book and asserted a supervisor allowed him to take work documents home.
- After a bench trial in the Central District of California, Chung was convicted of economic espionage (18 U.S.C. § 1831), conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 371), acting as an unregistered foreign agent (18 U.S.C. § 951), and making false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001), and was sentenced to 188 months.

## Issues

1. Whether sufficient evidence showed the charged documents contained “trade secrets” under the Economic Espionage Act definition in 18 U.S.C. § 1839.
2. Whether sufficient evidence proved Chung acted intending or knowing the conduct would benefit a foreign government under 18 U.S.C. § 1831.
3. Whether sufficient evidence supported the conspiracy, unregistered foreign-agent, and false-statement convictions.
4. Whether alleged nondisclosure of exculpatory information constituted a Brady violation warranting relief.
5. Whether challenged evidentiary rulings required a new trial.
6. Whether the district court erred in calculating the Sentencing Guidelines, including enhancements tied to loss and national-security concerns.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions and the 188-month sentence.
- The court held the evidence was sufficient that the relevant Boeing documents contained trade secrets under § 1839.
- The court held the evidence was sufficient that Chung acted with the required intent/knowledge that his conduct would benefit a foreign government under § 1831.
- The court upheld the conspiracy, unregistered foreign-agent, and false-statement convictions as supported by the record.
- The court rejected the claimed Brady violation and found no evidentiary error requiring a new trial.
- The court held the district court did not misapply the Sentencing Guidelines or clearly err in its supporting factual findings.

## Legal Principles

- Under 18 U.S.C. § 1839, information qualifies as an EEA “trade secret” when the owner takes reasonable measures to keep it secret and the information derives independent economic value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable.
- “Reasonable measures” to protect secrecy may be shown through confidentiality restrictions, proprietary markings, limited access, and non-public dissemination; the EEA does not require absolute secrecy.
- For economic espionage under 18 U.S.C. § 1831, the government must prove the defendant acted intending or knowing the offense would benefit a foreign government, instrumentality, or agent; intent may be proven through circumstantial evidence including communications, the nature of the information, and the pattern of transfers.
- In a bench trial, credibility determinations and competing explanations for possession of documents are resolved by the trial judge as factfinder and will be sustained on appeal if supported by the record.
- A Brady claim requires showing suppression of material exculpatory evidence; absent materiality and suppression, relief is unwarranted.
- Sentencing enhancements under the Guidelines are upheld when supported by non-clearly-erroneous findings and a correct Guidelines application.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit upheld Chung’s economic espionage and related convictions, concluding that Boeing’s controlled aerospace engineering documents met the EEA trade-secret definition and that the evidence supported findings that Chung provided technological information with the required intent to benefit China, while also rejecting asserted Brady, evidentiary, and sentencing challenges.


United States v. Chung, 659 F.3d 815 (9th Cir. 2011)