Former Coca-Cola Chemist convicted of Trade-Secret theft

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Former Coca-Cola Chemist convicted of Trade-Secret theft

By Pallavi Paul

Dr. Xiaorong You, formerly known as Shannon You, was convicted of conspiring to sell trade-secrets to a Chinese Company. She was working as a principal engineer for global research at Coca-Cola since 2012 till the year 2017, and had access to trade secrets covering BPA- free coating technology for the inside of beverage cans of Coca-Cola. Since the year 2017, Dr. You served as a packaging application development manager at Eastman Chemical company, thereby being one of the limited personnel having access to the company’s trade-secrets.

NEWS

By Pallavi Paul

Dr. You had received millions in Chinese government grants along with her Chinese corporate partner, to steal the trade-secrets for setting up a new BPA-free coating company in China. The U.S Department of Justice convicted Dr. You of conspiring to steal trade secrets, possession of stolen trade-secrets, conspiring to commit economic espionage and financial fraud after a 12-day long trial. The stolen trade secrets belonged to major chemical and coating companies. Until recently, Coca-Cola began researching for BPA-free alternatives for the inside-coating of beverage cans to avoid potential health risks that were found for using BPA to coat the inside of cans to minimize flavor loss. Dr. You is scheduled to be sentenced on 1st November at 10.30 a.m.

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