"HIGH-PROFILE AG THEFTS
Agriculture has seen its share of high-profile
thefts, some coming out of labs, while others come right out of
cornfields. Nichols pointed to the case of Mo Hailong, who was sentenced
in 2016 to three years in federal prison for stealing biotech corn
seeds from DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto in the Midwest.
As DTN has reported in the past, before Hailong
was caught, FBI agents said he shipped over 340 pounds of corn seeds
from Iowa to his home in Florida. Authorities aren’t certain where the
seeds went from there, but it was easy to conclude the seeds were sent
to China. The FBI also recorded some of Hailong’s phone calls back to
China, in which he and a Chinese plant breeder talked about “using the
foreigners’ technology to beat them.” Citing the need to boost
biotechnology in China, one of Hailong’s co-conspirators said, “There is
a serious need for a national hero.”"
