A former GE engineer and a Chinese national have been formally charged with 14 counts of economic espionage by the U.S. Department of Justice after stealing trade secrets from GE. The indictment describes the calculated theft of sensitive documents related to the proprietary design of GE’s gas and steam turbines.

According to the unsealed indictment, the engineer at GE Power & Water in Schenectady, New York “exploited his access to GE’s files by stealing multiple electronic files, including proprietary files involving design models, engineering drawings, configuration files, and material specifications having to do with various components and testing systems associated with GE gas and steam turbines.” This employee then sent these exfiltrated files via email to a Chinese businessman. The pair allegedly used the stolen GE trade secrets to “advance their own business interests in two Chinese companies.”