US COURTS
Chinese firm Sinovel fined for theft of secrets in US
Washington — A US court on Friday imposed the maximum fine of $1.5m on Chinese company Sinovel for stealing trade secrets from an American company producing wind turbines, the justice department said. The decision comes on the day Washington unleashed 25% import tariffs on $34bn in Chinese products to punish the country, the world’s second-biggest economy, for what President Donald Trump has said is the rampant theft of American technology. After being charged in 2013, Sinovel was convicted in January by a US court of stealing the trade secrets of AMSC, a US-based company formerly known as American Superconductor, which lost $550m and 700 jobs — more than half its global workforce — as a result, the justice department said. The two companies have now reached a settlement and Sinovel has one year to pay $25m to AMSC, after paying $32.5m earlier in July. The Chinese firm will also repay $850,000 to other victims. "Rather than pay AMSC for more than $800m in products and services it ha...
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