Researcher Gets Prison Term

At a hearing on Oct. 20, a Delaware federal court sentenced former DuPont research chemist Hong Meng to 14 months in jail for theft of trade secrets. In a June plea agreement with the U.S. attorney, the 44-year-old chemist admitted he downloaded to his personal computer DuPont technology for lengthening the life of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) used in displays (C&EN, June 14, page 25). Meng drew less than the maximum penalty for his crime. David C. Weiss, the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, said when charging Meng a year ago that his infraction made him liable for a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of $250,000. After the sentencing, Weiss revealed that the chemist had solicited funding from a regional Chinese government to set up a factory employing 1,000 people to make OLED televisions. In a separate intellectual property case, DuPont says Chinese authorities raided a clandestine plant in Nantong, China, that had produced $5 million worth of chlorantraniliprole, the active ingredient in DuPont’s Rynaxypyr insecticide. Wang Hua, deputy director of the Nantong Public Security Bureau, says local authorities filed criminal charges against the three owners of the plant.