Ex-Executives of one of Amercia's largest and most important suppliers to the worldwide automotive industry have been arrested by US Federal agents and charged with passing along secret 
technology to the Chinese.
Three former employees of Metaldyne Corp. have been indicted on federal charges of stealing trade secrets for Chinese competitors. Anne Lockwood, 53, her husband Michael Haehnel, 51, and Fuping Liu, 42, were charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, theft of trade secrets, computer fraud and other counts in the 64-count indictment unsealed on Wednesday, July 5th. The three were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit, released on bond, and surrendered their passports.
Lockwood was Metaldyne's vice president of sales until February 2004. Haehnel was a senior engineer until February 2005. Liu worked as a metallurgist until April 2004, and then left for a job at GKN Sinter Metals. Liu then worked at GKN's Shanghai, China, office until February 2005.
The indictment says the three former employees worked with others to "steal confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information from Metaldyne and GKN and use it in order to benefit Chinese competitors ... so that defendants could earn commissions from the sales made by the Chinese competitors."
Metaldyne, based in Plymouth, MI, and GKN are both key players in the powdered metal parts industry, which includes parts such as connecting rods, tubular flanges and transfer sprocket casings.
Attorneys for all three other former employees said that the charges were unfounded.
Metaldyne ranks No. 69 on the Automotive News list of top 100 global original equipment parts suppliers with original equipment sales of $2.16 billion in 2005. GKN's parent company, GKN plc UK, ranks No. 26 with global original equipment sales of $4.82 billion in 2005.
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