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Two engineers with Wyko Tire Technology, Inc. of Greenback, Tenn. are under indictment on federal industrial espionage charges, accused of “conspiring to steal trade secrets from the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and scheming to defraud Goodyear of confidential and proprietary information,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Clark Alan Roberts, 46, and Sean Edward Howley, 38, were arrested March 6 and arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley.
Prosecutors say Wyko had obtained a contract in early 2007 with the Haohau South China Guilin Rubber Co. Ltd. (HHSC) of Guilin in the Peoples Republic of China to supply tire manufacturing equipment for producing large off-the-road (OTR) tires.
The indictment alleges that in late May of 2007, Roberts and Howley traveled to a Goodyear tire plant in Topeka, Kan. “After allegedly making material misrepresentations to Goodyear employees concerning the purpose of their visit, the defendants used a cell phone to surreptitiously photograph proprietary OTR tire manufacturing equipment.”
The two later emailed the unauthorized photographs, which contained valuable trade secrets, to employees at a Wyko subsidiary in Dudley, England, who then used the photographs to complete a similar piece of tire manufacturing machinery for the HHSC contract, according to Rita M. Glavin, acting assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division and James R. Dedrick, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Knoxville, Tenn. field office.
Wyko declined to discuss the matter. “In the next couple of days we’ll release an official statement,” says Mike Evans, the company’s director of sales and service, “but right now we don’t have any comment.”
The indictment charges one count of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, seven counts of theft of trade secrets, three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted of all the charges, Roberts and Howley each face a maximum of 150 years in prison and $2.75 million in fines.
For more information, visit www.usdoj.gov, www.wykous.com and www.goodyear.com.
