Chinese man pleads guilty to stealing Monsanto trade secret
![<i></i><br/>](https://abc17news.b-cdn.net/abc17news.com/2021/06/kmiz-biz-and-tech.png)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 44-year-old man from China admitted in court that he stole a trade secret from Monsanto while he worked in Missouri. Federal prosecutors say Haitao Xiang, formerly of Chesterfield, Missouri, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Missouri to conspiracy to commit economic espionage. Federal prosecutors say Xiang transferred a trade secret to a memory card for the benefit of the Chinese government. He was arrested after he returned to the U.S. from China. Xiang was an imaging scientist for Monsanto and its subsidiary, The Climate Corporation, from 2008 to 2017. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 7.