Chinese businessman Mo Hailong pleaded guilty in Des Moines to conspiracy to steal trade secrets – inbred corn seeds from two of the largest U.S. seed companies – in return for prosecutors’ recommendation of a shorter prison sentence, the Department of Justice said. “Mo Hailong participated in the theft of inbred corn seeds from fields in the Southern District of Iowa for the purpose of transporting the seeds to China. The stolen inbred, or parent, seeds were the valuable intellectual property of DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto,” DOJ said. Mo was part of a long-running conspiracy while working for a Chinese conglomerate with a seed corn subsidiary, Kings Nower Seed.
The trade-secrets charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. As part of the plea agreement, the government agreed not to seek prison term of more than five years.
Mo was arrested in December 2013 after a two-year investigation. His sister, Mo Yun, and other Chinese nationals also were charged. The FBI began the investigation after Mo was found digging in a test field run by DuPont Pioneer in May 2011. Charges against Mo Yun were dropped last year. Five other Chinese citizens fled the United States. The Associated Press said the plea agreement indicates that Mo will turn over to the government farms in Illinois and Iowa that were used in the seed-theft scheme and that Mo may be deported from the country after his prison term.
Writer Ted Genoways wrote an in-depth story, “Corn Wars,” about the case in The New Republic last year.