Former Dupont chemist accused of downloading confidential company documents after resignation

Feds: Ex-DuPont chemist took confidential docs

WILMINGTON, Del. — Federal authorities have charged a former DuPont Co. chemist with downloading confidential company documents after he left the company.

Authorities said Friday that 43-year-old Hong Meng transferred hundreds of documents involving organic light-emitting diodes to his personal computer.

Meng faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 if convicted of exceeding authorized access from a protected computer.

Authorities say Meng resigned from a DuPont facility in Wilmington to take a job with the company in China. However, a DuPont spokesman says Meng was fired because he violated his employment agreement.

Authorities say he had also accepted a position at Peking University in Beijing and may have planned to commercialize the technology there.

Meng referred questions to his attorney, Joseph Bernstein, who did not immediately return a telephone message.