INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Three former employees of Eli Lilly and Co. sent trade secrets the company valued at more than $55 million to a competing Chinese drug company, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Indianapolis Tuesday.
The indictment charges Guoqing Cao and Shuyu Li with seven counts of theft and conspiracy to commit theft, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported. The indictment did not name the third man.
The indictment alleges Cao and Li emailed sensitive information about nine experimental drug research programs at Lilly to the third man when he was employed by Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd. in China.
U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett and his deputy, Cynthia Ridgeway, characterized the alleged theft as a crime against America.
"If the superseding indictment in this case could be wrapped up in one word, that word would be 'traitor,'" Ridgeway told Magistrate Judge Mark Dinsmore during a detention hearing for Cao and Li. Dinsmore did not immediately rule on the detention of the men.