One of two employees accused of stealing trade secrets from the budding self-driving car development at Apple Inc., a former engineer, entered a guilty plea on Monday.
Federal prosecutors in the United States claim that Xiaolang Zhang downloaded the schematic for an Apple self-driving circuit board after revealing his plans to work for a Chinese self-driving vehicle firm and making a last-minute airline reservation to China.
After passing through the security barrier, he was detained at the airport in San Jose.
Zhang left Apple in 2018 and joined the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Xpeng. On Tuesday, Xpeng stated on its Twitter-like Sina Weibo account that it had no disagreements with Apple regarding the matter and that it was not involved in Zhang's case.
Zhang initially entered a not guilty plea to the allegations, but according to court documents filed on Monday, he altered his plea to guilty after reaching a plea agreement with the prosecution. The plea agreement is final, and a November sentence date has been scheduled.
Zhang's lawyer acknowledged the plea deal but declined to make any other comments. A request for comment was not immediately answered by Apple or the US Department of Justice.
The other former Apple engineer accused of stealing trade secrets, Jizhong Chen, has entered a not-guilty plea. His court appearance is scheduled for August 29.