News


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         CRM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1997                          (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

               TAIWANESE BUSINESSMAN AND DAUGHTER 
             ARRESTED ON INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE CHARGES
 


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced
today the arrest by the agents from the Cleveland FBI office of a
Taiwanese businessman and his daughter on charges of stealing
company secrets from one of the nation's largest adhesive
manufacturing companies.

     Scott Charney, chief of the Justice Department's Computer
Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Emily Sweeney, U.S.
Attorney in Cleveland, said the criminal complaint was filed in
U.S. District Court in Cleveland.

     The defendants, Pin Yen Yang, aka P.Y. Yang, 70, and his
daughter, Hwei Chang Yang, aka Sally Yang, 39, were arrested by
FBI agents Thursday evening at Hopkins International Airport in
Cleveland.  They were traveling to New York to see the U.S. Open
tennis championship.

     Both defendants are charged with mail and wire fraud,
conspiracy to steal trade secrets, money laundering and receipt
of stolen goods from the Avery Dennison Corporation facility in
Concord, Ohio.

     Avery Dennison, based in Pasadena, California, is one of the 
nation's largest manufacturers of adhesive products which include
postage stamps and mailing labels. The company employs some
16,000 people world-wide.

     The pair was arrested after negotiating with an employee of
Avery Dennison to obtain additional trade secrets.  That employee
was cooperating with the FBI in an undercover capacity. 
  
          Since July of 1989 the defendants have obtained, among
other things, Avery Dennison trade secret information relating to
formulations for self-adhesive products.

     Federal prosecutors said an initial estimate regarding the
research and development costs expended by Avery Dennison to
develop the information obtained by the defendants could exceed
between $50 million and $60 million.

     P.Y. Yang is the president of Four Pillars Enterprise
Company, LTD, of Taiwan. That firm manufactures and sells
pressure-sensitive products mainly in Taiwan, Malaysia,
Singapore, the United States and the Peoples Republic of China. 
There is no indication individuals from the Peoples Republic of
China participated in the scheme.

     Hwei Chen Yang is a corporate officer of Four Pillars, which
has more than 900 employees and annual revenues of more than $150
million.  She is believed to hold dual citizenship in the United
States and Taiwan.

     Copies of the criminal complaint and the FBI affidavit are
available at the Office of Public Affairs, Department of Justice
(202-514-2008).
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