Thursday, July 30, 2015

Seed theft charges against Chinese dropped


The federal government prosecutor said there’s little chance of gaining a conviction, so a judge has dismissed theft charges against a Chinese woman accused of stealing seed and secrets from Monsanto and Pioneer.

The prosecutor said the patents stolen with seed are worth $500 million.

But the prosecutor said his case has been built largely on electronic messages that the court has ruled are not admissible as evidence.

The order signed Tuesday instructs the government to return Mo Yun’s passport and immediately stop “all court-directed electronic monitoring,” meaning she can return to China.

Her husband is a billionaire.

Investigators allege that Mo helped her brother and five other Chinese nationals working for subsidiaries of Beijing-based DBN Group steal patented corn seed to reproduce its genetic traits.