Original subtitles

- China is engaged in a whole-of-state effort

to become the world's only superpower.

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- They already have more ships than us.

They have comparable military power.

The one key advantage we have is our submarines.

- We got some information indicating this company

in Houston was interested in stealing

a marine technology for China.

- It's the technology that makes

our submarines quiet

so you can't hear our submarines on sonars.

- There was a lot of money coming from China

to the Houston company.

- Submarines can take out aircraft carriers

with thousands of sailors on them.

That technology is going to either

save thousands of U.S. sailors

or it's going to get them killed.

- This is an insider threat.

This is a big deal.

- We have to act.

- In the FBI, we make a lot of headlines.

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Drug busts,

mob stings,

terrorist takedowns.

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.

- Freeze! - FBI.

- FBI! - Action!

- But they don't know the half of it.

What really goes down,

we save that for each other

when we're talking agent-to-agent.

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This is "FBI True."

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- Well, tell me, how did you three

get involved in this big case?

- We got some information indicating this company

in Houston was interested in syntactic foam,

a marine technology that is export controlled,

because it has national security implications.

There's regulations controlling whether it can be

sent to another country, such as China or Russia.

- So one thing, I have no clue what syntactic foam is.

What is syntactic foam?

- Essentially, syntactic foam is trapped air,

and it's just really reinforced trapped air.

You create tiny spheres, and inside the sphere is air.

It's all packed in a resin that's lightweight,

very strong.

It can conform to whatever shape

that you need it to be in.

- It's the technology that makes our submarines quiet.

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Older submarines are made out of steel.

When they dive, it makes a lot of noise on sonar,

so you can hear them coming.

And our submarines use syntactic foam,

which contracts quietly,

so you can't hear our submarines on sonar.

It's also used in our stealth destroyers.

The superstructure of is made out of syntactic foam,

but the radar goes through it, so you can't see where it is.

- There's only four companies that manufacture syntactic foam

for use in our military.

narrator: Crosby Haupt served

in the Marine Corps Combat Engineers

for four years, including a tour in Afghanistan.

In 2012, he joined

the FBI Counterintelligence Squad in Houston.

- One is in the U.K., one in France,

one in Australia, and one in the U.S.

None of the companies that can mass produce

this technology at a high level would

cooperate with Russia or China.

- But is there any other company trying to steal

this technology for China?

Because this could be a potential detriment

to our military, to the country.

narrator: Cindy Coppola is a 23-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked on cases that included

organized crime and terrorism,

and took part in multinational investigations

into drug trafficking and money laundering.

- In counterintelligence, China is

our number-one priority for a reason.

We have hundreds of cases.

They're our biggest threat.

narrator: Roman Rozhavsky is a 17-year veteran of the FBI.

He leads the Bureau's efforts to detect

and investigate threats from Russia, Iran,

China, and other adversaries.

- The PRC has more ships than us.

They have comparable military power.

- China's navy-- now, numbers are staggering.

355 vessels.

It's grown so quickly, analysts consider

the country's rise unlike anything seen

in several centuries.

- The one key advantage we have is our submarines.

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PRC is still using Soviet-era subs

that are made out of steel.

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Our submarines are quieter.

They can't be detected on sonar,

and syntactic foam is a big part of that.

narrator: But now that U.S. advantage could be lost,

which would put American sailors at risk

as they patrol the South China Sea,

hoping to deter China's aggression against Taiwan.

- Submarines can take out an aircraft carrier

with thousands of sailors on them.

This is technology we really need to protect

for national security reasons.

PRC government, they say exactly

what they want to accomplish:

Become a marine power, take over the South China Sea,

push out the U.S. and its allies.

- China is engaged in a whole-of-state effort

to become the world's only superpower

by any means necessary.

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- We got a tip that there's a company in Houston, CBMI.

- This company, CBMI, was trying to get export-controlled

syntactic foam for China.

narrator: Julie Jordan has

been a counterintelligence analyst for almost 20 years,

investigating cases involving export violations,

theft of trade secrets, and economic espionage.

- CBMI, this company in Houston,

what were they all about?

- So we got a business location.

We drove by.

It looked like a little strip mall office.

CBMI, on their website, claimed that they could make

this syntactic foam already.

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- But how do you do that in a tiny, little strip mall

doesn't really make sense.

We found out that it had a parent company

in China, CBM Future.

narrator: In China, the "CBM" in the company's name

stands for "China Buoyancy Materials,"

but the Houston subsidiary's acronym

is "Create Better Materials,"

removing any reference to China.

- The company is trying to hide who they actually work for

so other U.S. companies will do business with them.

- Who was the owner?

- Shan Shi.

He graduated from a very well-known university,

Harbin Engineering University, in China.

He came to the United States in the late '90s to study.

- Was he a U.S. citizen?

- He was. - Yes, naturalized.

- Kui Bo was the Vice President of CBM International.

Shan Shi being the engineering expertise,

and Kui Bo doing more of the business side.

Having the foundation that we built at that point,

one of the other areas that we really needed to understand

was a sense of the finances.

You know, where's the money coming from

to facilitate this effort of theirs?

And so we were able to use a subpoena

to get their bank records.

There was a lot of money coming from China

to the Houston company.

- You follow the money, or you follow the phones, right?

- We see millions of dollars coming in,

and nothing going out, which, of course, doesn't make sense.

We start researching more.

We see that CBMF is partnered

with Harbin Engineering University,

which is the PLA Navy's research facility

where Shan Shi was a student.

Then we see they're getting money

from high-level PRC government.

You realize that they weren't just trying

to buy a sheet of syntactic foam

to put into a submarine.

They wanted to try to get the entire technology.

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- We actually saw photographs

of their manufacturing facilities.

narrator: Now investigators want to know

if the company's factory in China is actually producing

syntactic foam or even some part of it.

- We found out they were going to attend

this trade show that happened every year in Houston, Texas.

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So we walk through, and we find their booth.

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And there on their table they have the macro spheres that

go into the final product.

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- Crosby, when you saw this at the trade show,

did you go, like, "Holy shit, they've got this technology"?

- Yeah.

I'm very concerned at that point.

- Our biggest fear was they would succeed

and steal the entire technology.

- That was a big moment for us

because it puts it all in perspective.

This is an insider threat. This is a big deal.

narrator: Now that they have spheres that help

make up syntactic foam and a Chinese factory standing by

to produce the full product,

Shan Shi and his Houston company appear poised

to steal the crucial naval technology.

- We needed to know what was truly happening.

Either in their phone conversations

or in their emails, what were they talking about?

- Because it's a U.S. company, so they have extra protection,

we had to prove they were acting as an agent

of a foreign power.

We had enough for a FISA.

- So you get emails.

Do you get phones? - We did.

So at this point, we start reading,

in real time, what they're doing.

- We had about 250,000 emails to go through.

- Wow.

- So I started browsing a little bit

and decided to do a keyword search.

And I searched the word "trade secret."

And one of the first emails that came up

was this 20-page document.

It had Trelleborg markings all over the front,

along with confidentiality, proprietary statements

on every single page.

narrator: Trelleborg is one of the four companies

that makes syntactic foam for the American military.

Located in Houston, Trelleborg observes all U.S. export laws.

- That information, that trade secret information,

had been stolen from Trelleborg.

We also see through the email coverage,

CBMI had reached out to headhunters

to try to specifically find the employees

that had worked on the manufacturing process

at Trelleborg.

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- What we realize is that they actually

have two former Trelleborg employees now working at CBMI.

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Gang Liu was kind of the linchpin of everything.

He was an intern at Trelleborg for a year.

- Sam Ogoe was a former Trelleborg employee.

He actually worked on manufacturing and testing.

- So you think, at that point,

that's where that PowerPoint came from.

One of them stole it--

- Stole it. - When they left.

- Yes. - Right.

- Gang Liu had kept the technical data from Trelleborg.

At that point, they knew, like, they had

somebody who could advance them significantly.

Gang Liu was hired.

On day two, he's providing mountains of technical data.

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- So when Sam started working at CBMI,

he reached out to his friends, Uka Uche and Johnny Randall.

Both of them were, at the time, working at Trelleborg.

And they provided him trade secret information.

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- We're angry at this point.

We know they have stolen trade secrets,

and we're finding more Trelleborg trade secrets.

- That's just crazy. - Right.

- It's just crazy. - You have to act.

We have to warn this company.

- It's a duty to warn them because this could definitely

affect the United States and impact our military

and maybe the Five Eyes as well, right?

- It's a threat to our national security.

They could build submarines that are as good as ours.

And submarines carry nuclear weapons,

they can go anywhere, and they'd be difficult to detect.

Those submarines could destroy our fleets.

narrator: Without detection, Chinese subs might

even end up in the waters not far

from America's biggest cities.

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- We see that they have insiders in Trelleborg,

so we can't just go to the U.S. company,

because we don't know, you know, who knows about this

and who doesn't, and we might tip them off.

So we decide we're going all the way to Sweden,

and we're going to talk to their CEO.

- Sweden, so it's a Swedish company.

- It's a massive Swedish corporation.

The company in Houston that made syntactic foam was

one of their subsidiaries.

We go to their boardroom,

and then we show them the stolen trade secrets

that we got from our FISA.

And we would like your help to stop this

and save your company in Houston.

- And from that point forward, we had their attention.

And the anger in the room built as they understood

that someone in their family had betrayed them.

- And they were like, we will fully cooperate with you.

We will work with you and help you with this prosecution.

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- So you come back from Sweden.

What do you guys do next?

- Number one, we need CMBI to try to profit

from their stolen trade secrets.

Number two, we need them to do it in District of Columbia

because that's where the U.S. Attorney's Office is

that we're working with.

And then number three, we want to get more evidence

that they're sponsored by the PRC government

and that this is economic espionage.

So we partner with Lockheed.

We get their permission to put their name

on this potential project,

where they're going to build a submarine that

would need syntactic foam.

We make it very lucrative, you know,

where CBMI make millions of dollars.

So we have the undercover who is acting

as the contractor for Lockheed reach out to Shan Shi.

And the undercover says, like, hey, we don't just

work with anyone, and you're not exactly a known company,

so what have you done before?

- Sure.

- It works out better than we ever hoped.

They send us this amazing presentation of things

they have done for the PRC's Navy,

like they actually built a submersible for them,

and they send us photos of that.

- It was an orange ROV, and it's up on a stand.

And when you zoom in on a little logo on it,

it says the "Key Laboratory for National Defense."

- I cannot believe they went for it, frankly.

Like, it was a great idea, but why would they be

so foolish as to provide the things that

they ended up providing,

which were projects for the PRC government

and different research institutes that we--

are known to be of concern.

- We set up an undercover meeting

with Shan Shi and Gang Liu.

They think they're gonna meet with Lockheed.

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- And we knew that the three individuals

from Trelleborg would be in Houston.

And we find out that Kui Bo is going

to fly to Boston to buy a bunch of equipment

to send back to China.

- At that point, there were subjects

in three different states.

- The plan was I would go to DC and interrogate

Shi and Gang Liu.

Crosby has to go to Boston.

- Going to Boston made the most sense

because Kui Bo has been there the entire time

since its inception.

That left Houston.

We turned to Julie and--

- Intelligence analysts are not usually

used to interrogate subjects after they're arrested.

This is a very rare circumstance.

Crosby was worried.

Like, there's no way they're gonna buy this.

Are they even gonna get on the plane?

- This doesn't work, then we don't really

have any other backup plan.

narrator: But two of the top executives take the bait

and fly to DC for the meeting.

- So we rent this temporary room

where they give the presentation.

- Thank you.

- Come on in. Make yourself at home.

- We had three undercovers in the meeting.

We had WFO watching-- - WFO doing surveillance.

- And we were watching live.

narrator: Shan Shi and Gang Liu boast

about their latest projects.

- Oh, okay. Okay.

narrator: Then, a familiar name pops up.

Trelleborg, the company from which

Gang Liu stole technical specifications

for syntactic foam.

- You know, they're really pleased with themselves.

They think they're gonna get the contract.

- With Lockheed. - Right, with Lockheed.

- And, at one point, Gang Liu, he's talking about,

we made these for the PLA Navy,

and they are these sonobuoys that float.

You know, they're used to find submarines.

And then the undercover is, like, wait,

you made this for the PLA Navy?

Like, you know--

Like our enemy, basically?

I'm just gonna--

- And then-- - He realized, oops,

I better not talk about it. - Yeah.

Shan Shi jumps in, and he's, like,

we try to follow the law, and we--

- We try not to work with the Chinese military,

is what he says. - Right.

- The presentation took about an hour,

and they're sitting there thinking,

you know, they're gonna make millions of dollars.

They finished their presentation,

and the undercovers say, hey, this was great.

You know, we're really interested,

but we have to call our CEO.

They think they're getting the contract,

and they're gonna make all this money.

And then, eventually, a whole squad of FBI agents comes in

and handcuffs them.

And the looks on their faces are, you know,

shock and surprise.

- Shi was one of them.

- Yeah, Shi was one of them.

Gang Liu the other.

And the third person, it was his first day.

They just hired him, and they're, like,

we need you to go to this presentation.

He's sitting there-- - Oh, my God.

- As the FBI comes and arrests everyone.

- He has no clue.

- And he's like, I'm not with them.

- Yeah.

- So Crosby gets Kui Bo to confess.

Julie get Sam to confess.

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- Yeah.

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- I interrogate Gang Liu.

And I'm confronting him with, like, look,

you sent these trade secrets.

- And after, like an hour, he breaks down,

and he's, like, yes, I did it.

- It was at Gang Liu's house, we find a backpack

with all these Trelleborg formulas.

He printed those out and walked out with them

because he still had access,

and that's why Shan Shi hired him.

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Everyone confesses, right,

and everyone cooperates with us,

except Shan Shi.

His interrogation is like three hours of him denying

and lying about everything.

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- Four subjects pleaded guilty.

- One fled. - One fled.

- Gang Liu snuck to DC and boarded

an Air China flight directly, so they definitely helped him.

- In 2015, China committed publicly that

it would not target American companies

for economic gain.

Obviously, that commitment has not been met.

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- It was the first case ever where we were

able to intervene before a technology was stolen,

rather than afterwards.

And we're happy we were able to stop the technology

from going to the PRC.

Hopefully, it prevented the PRC

from building better submarines.

- We're trying to be more proactive.

The FBI is trying to get out in front of the private sector

and say, this is what you need to worry about

because we don't want this to happen again.

We would rather prevent it than prosecute it.

- Submarines are the key to everything.

They're our biggest advantage against other countries.

If we ever do go to war with China,

it'll be a naval war in the South China Sea

or a conflict over Taiwan.

That technology is going to either

save thousands of U.S. sailors,

or it's going to get them killed.

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