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Aviation Engineer Pleads Guilty to Stealing Confidential Documents

4/6/2026

Summary

Story summary

Junjie Zhang, an aviation engineer, will be sentenced on July 23 after pleading guilty to false statements about proprietary information.
He tried to board a flight to China with confidential documents from his Wichita-based employer and misled U.S. Customs about devices' contents.
The FBI flagged his behavior in 2018, leading to discovery of documents valued over $100,000, and U.S. Attorney Ryan Kriegshauser warned IP theft harms American businesses and consumers.

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Story summary

Junjie Zhang, an aviation engineer, will be sentenced on July 23 after pleading guilty to false statements about proprietary information.
He tried to board a flight to China with confidential documents from his Wichita-based employer and misled U.S. Customs about devices' contents.
The FBI flagged his behavior in 2018, leading to discovery of documents valued over $100,000, and U.S. Attorney Ryan Kriegshauser warned IP theft harms American businesses and consumers.