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发帖数: 2119 | 1 http://www.nawindpower.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?con
Ex-AMSC Engineer Sentenced To Jail For Industrial Espionage
in News Departments > New & Noteworthy
by Wiebke Herding on Monday 26 September 2011
A former American Superconductor (AMSC) employee who admitted to selling
wind turbine secrets to Sinovel was convicted on Sept. 23 for fraudulent
data handling and distribution of trade secrets. Dejan Karabasevic was
sentenced to 12 months in jail, two years of probation and fined 200,000
euros in damages.
Sinovel immediately denied all accusations of having bought AMSC's
intellectual property.
With its sentence, the Klagenfurt district court in Austria concluded the
first act of the industrial espionage thriller that is causing serious
trouble for AMSC, whose once-biggest customer Sinovel allegedly stole the
wind-power electronics software code developed by Windtec - AMSC's Austrian
subsidiary - for its 1.5 MW turbines.
Karabasevic, a 38-year-old Serbian national, has admitted to downloading the
latest version of AMSC's C12 wind turbine electronics software from his
office laptop and subsequently copying parts of the code into the program
version already in Sinovel's possession. He is alleged to have received 15,
000 euros from Sinovel in compensation. In addition, AMSC claims Karabasevic
had employment contracts with Sinovel and others worth well over $1 million
for a five-year period until 2017.
According to his attorney, Karabasevic was unhappy about a change in job-
related responsibilities. He resigned in March and later used his computer
to access the software and furnish it to Sinovel.
"We then found a version of the software in Sinovel's installations in China
in June that we had never sold to the firm," said a Windtec programmer,
according to a court transcript.
After Karabasevic's arrest in July, the accused cooperated with the Austrian
authorities to secure a reduced sentence.
AMSC specified the value of the stolen software as 7.5 million euros - the
result of five years of work by 15 programmers. In addition the company
claims that Sinovel, which accounted for more than 75% of the U.S. company's
revenues last year, owes $250 million for contracted and received shipments
. Austrian subsidiary Windtec had to write off 96 million euros and laid off
40 staff members at its Klagenfurt location.
The criminal proceeding is one of five lawsuits AMSC initiated as a result
of the dispute with Sinovel. The option remains open for a separate civil
suit against Karabasevic in Austria. On Sept. 15, the company announced it
was seeking a cease-and-desist order against Sinovel to prevent infringement
on its intellectual property.
Dan McGahn, AMSC's CEO's says Karabasevic's "admission of theft and
collusion with Sinovel demonstrates the strength of our case."
In response, Sinovel denied all charges.
"The claims of the AMSC employee are completely false," Sinovel said in a
statement. The company claims to "have never bought any business secrets or
intellectual property rights from the AMSC employee. The claims by AMSC and
its employee have seriously violated Sinovel's public image and business
reputation."
Wiebke Herding is a freelance writer living in Brussels. | s*******d
发帖数: 3786 | 2 所以说AMSC是dead meat.很快要被中国山寨搞死。 |
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