China espionage of intellectual property continues

Fake Nike.

A recent FBI news release indicates that last week they caught a foreign national trying to steal medical device technology:

...Lu’s secret goal was to use trade secrets stolen from his employer to strike it rich in his native China. However, thanks to an FBI investigation, his plan was thwarted, and Lu is now serving a 27-month prison sentence.

Lu worked for several different U.S. companies, all of which developed high-tech medical equipment, such as clot retrieval tools and balloon-guide catheters. In each job, Lu signed a non-disclosure agreement for his research and development work.

Despite signing the confidentiality agreement, Lu routinely did “data dumps” from his various medical research employers for about three years until his arrest in 2012...

...The investigative team learned that Lu had planned to create and run his own medical device manufacturing company in China using the stolen technology and Chinese government funding. He had even applied for Chinese patents using technology stolen from the American companies. (China’s government creates policies that disadvantage American businesses, and hacking against American companies and interests is a common tactic.)

That's all well and good but notice the date of 2012?  This was posted on the FBI's website just this month.  Why the delay? Was this a FISA case, was it public knowledge that Lu had been convicted?   That's one curious aspect of this news release  that otherwise shows China has been unrelenting in their theft of intellectual property.