Ex-GE Engineer’s Economic Espionage Conviction Withstands Appeal

A former General Electric Co. engineer has lost an appeal seeking to undo his conviction for conspiracy to commit economic espionage, and the ensuing two-year prison sentence.

The evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s finding that Xiaoqing Zheng was guilty, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Wednesday. He was convicted in April 2022.

Zheng had argued the government failed to prove that his conduct—stealing GE trade secrets related to turbine technology—resulted from “foreign government sponsored or coordinated intelligence activity.” But the economic espionage statute doesn’t require proof that a foreign government directed or coordinated the ...