According to the press in Canada and the United States, this is the Canadian company Hibar Systems, specialized in assembly lines for electric batteries for vehicles, which was acquired in 2019 by Tesla, led by billionaire Elon Musk.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement Thursday that Klaus Pflugbeil, who is also a German national, pleaded guilty.
The decision allows Pflugbeil to avoid a criminal trial. The 58-year-old will be sentenced on October 9th at the federal court in Central Islip, near New York.
Klaus Pflugbeil and Shao Yilong, an alleged accomplice currently on the run, were approached at the end of 2023 by US federal police (FBI) agents who posed as industrialists interested in buying their products.
The two men are accused of stealing industrial and commercial secrets from Hibar Systems, including "original documents and drawings" about the company's technology, for which they worked.
According to the statement, Pflugbeil left the Canadian manufacturer in 2020 to join a company founded in China by Shao Yilong, which manufactures and markets the same equipment whose technology was "stolen from the former employer".
His guilty plea "demonstrates that this indictment quickly brings to justice those who misappropriate the intellectual property of American companies and protects our economy and national security," said federal prosecutor Breon Peace.
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