The US Justice Department has introduced a collection of prison circumstances tracing the unlawful circulation of delicate know-how, together with Apple’s software program code for self-driving vehicles and supplies used for missiles, to international adversaries like Russia, China and Iran.

Some of the alleged theft dates again a number of years however officers are drawing consideration to the circumstances now to focus on the work of a taskforce created this yr to disrupt the switch of products to international international locations.

“We are committed to doing all we can to prevent these advanced tools from falling into the hands of adversaries who wield them in a way that threatens not only our national security but democratic values everywhere,” stated assistant lawyer basic Matthew Olsen, who heads the Justice Department’s nationwide safety division.

One of the circumstances, unsealed on Tuesday in federal court docket in Los Angeles, accuses a former software program engineer from Apple of taking proprietary information associated to self-driving vehicles earlier than his final day on the firm in 2018 after which boarding a flight from San Francisco to China on the night time FBI brokers have been looking out his home.

Other circumstances disclosed on Tuesday have resulted in arrests. One defendant, Liming Li, 64, was arrested earlier this month on costs that he stole hundreds of delicate recordsdata from his California employer, together with know-how that can be utilized within the growth of nuclear submarines and navy plane, and used them to assist competing Chinese companies.

He has been in custody since his arrest.

Two Russian nationals, Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin, have been arrested in Arizona this month on costs of conspiring to ship plane components to Russian airline firms.

The Justice Department additionally unsealed a separate prison case accusing a Chinese nationwide of conspiring to transmit isostatic graphite, a fabric that can be utilized within the nostril of intercontinental ballistics, to Iran in violation of US sanctions.

The departments of Justice and Commerce earlier this yr launched the Disruptive Technology Strike Force as a technique to forestall US adversaries from buying delicate know-how.