Six Chinese citizens have been indicted by the US Attorney’s office on charges of conspiracy to steal trade secrets from seed companies in the US states of Iowa and Illinois.

The December 17, 2013, indictment alleges that Mo Hailong and five other men conspired to steal the trade secrets of Dupont Pioneer, Monsanto and LG Seeds and to transport them to China for the benefit of their Beijing-based seed employer, Kings Nower Seed. Mo, who was charged by criminal complaint on December 10, 2013, is accused of stealing trade secrets worth US$30 million to US$40 million.

“We don’t see these types of cases very often, in terms of plant breeders in the midwest,” says Christopher Voci, an IP attorney at Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Farms in the midwestern United States produce much of the nation’s grain supply.

Until relatively recently, plant breeding was about cross-breeding: find two plants with the qualities you want and breed for the traits you’re looking for, whether that be drought resistance, pest resistance or something else, Voci tells Asia IP. “But with the rise of genetic modification techniques, you were able to do things much more precisely. Seed companies have been adding an increasing number of genetic modifications. These techniques, while very precise, are also very expensive to do, which makes them prime targets for theft.”

Plant breeders generally have to grow the plants outside, in areas which are open to the public, Voci notes. “If someone knows what they’re looking for, if they know a particular plot of land is owned by Pioneer or Monsanto or under contract to those companies, they can potentially go in there and take the corn they need.”

A criminal complaint alleges that the men stole the corn seeds from fields in Iowa and Illinois between September 2011 and October 2012 and represented “several years” worth of research.

According to the Des Moines Register, Mo used counter-surveillance techniques – such as driving slowly for long periods of time followed by rapid acceleration and making numerous U-turns – to shake FBI tails, but the seeds were still confiscated by law enforcement authorities as several of the men tried to leave the country. Mo also allegedly used an alias to tour DuPont Pioneer’s Johnston, Iowa, headquarters and a Monsanto research facility in Ankeny, Iowa.

“The genetic modification of plants has become an extremely valuable asset for these companies,” Voci says. “Over the past 20 years or so, seed companies have spent enormous sums of money developing these genetically modified plants. They’re always on the look out for the next new product, and they spend a lot of money on R&D. That R&D is not easy to replicate, which makes those trade secrets an attractive item to steal.”

The Register reported that three of the charged men were stopped by the FBI as they attempted to leave the country, two at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and one at a border crossing with Canada. Each had stolen corn seeds hidden in their luggage and pockets.

Voci says the stolen seed corn was likely destined to be planted in plots in China, where it would reproduce the genetic modifications bred into the corn. “It’s sort of self-replicating,” Voci says. “There’s some chance genetic modifications would be unstable, but for the most part, once the corn is in test plots, it’s pretty certain the genetic modification would be stable and passed from generation to generation. That’s the beauty of genetic modification.”

But self-replication is also a danger for the seed companies, he says, and for that reason, genetically-modified seeds in the US are typically licensed to farmers rather than sold. “One of the terms of the license is that farmers cannot hold back any quantities of corn for future plantings,” Voci says.

Mo, a permanent US resident, faces up to 10 years in prison and a US$5 million fine, officials said.