Three Lucent Scientists Arrested

WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities arrested three Chinese nationals in
New Jersey on Thursday and accused them of stealing Internet technology
worth "hundreds of millions" of dollars from Lucent Technologies Inc.
and sending it back to China.

The three people arrested, whose names weren't immediately released,
include two current Lucent employees, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott
Christie said. Each faces one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud,
and a court hearing was scheduled in Newark, N.J., later in the day.

The three allegedly stole from Lucent hardware and software that made up
its "PathStar" server technology, which handles transmission of voice
traffic over Internet networks. They are accused of forming their own
company, ComTriad Technologies, and entering into a joint venture with
Datang Telecomm Technology Co. in China, which is majority-owned by the
Chinese government.

Mr. Christie said Datang invested at least $1.2 million in the joint
venture, and in exchange the three posted the source code for PathStar
on a password-protected Web site hosted in Chicago, where authorities
believe Datang retrieved it. "Most if not all of the source code has
been transferred to China," Mr. Christie said.

Both the Lucent employees worked on the PathStar project as senior
software developers, Mr. Christie said. All three were arrested early
Thursday, two at their homes and one at work.

May 3, 2001 Wall Street Journal
http://interactive.wsj.com/pages/techmain.htm
Ted Bridis Staff Reporter