A Chinese engineer has been accused of stealing trade secrets from Apple before attempting to fly back to his home country.
The FBI arrested and charged Jizhong Chen last week according to court documents filed in California, CNN reports.
The information he is alleged to have stolen relates to Apple’s secret self-driving car project, which the tech company refuses to acknowledge exists publicly.
In the complaint Apple said it would be "enormously damaging" for the company should the information be widely released.
Chen worked for Apple and first aroused suspicion when a colleague reported seeing him taking photos of the self-driving car project with a wide-angle lens earlier in January.
Two photos led to “instant criminal charges”, the complaint said.
According to the document, he told Apple he had downloaded 2,000 files onto his personal hard drive and did so as an "insurance policy" if he lost his job at the company.
Apple also reported it discovered he had applied for positions at a rival firm working on autonomous vehicles in China.
It is the second time in rougjly six months a Chinese national has been charged with taking similar material from Apple.
A spokesman for Apple said: “Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of our IP very seriously. We are working with authorities on this matter and are referring all questions to the FBI.”
