Ex-Sandia Labs employee home searched

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Investigators may have found the evidence they need to prove that a former Sandia Labs scientist was sharing research with China.

In a recently released search warrant affidavit investigators share what they found inside the home of Jianyu Huang.

The 16-page document outlines what federal agents were looking for and what they found to try and prove the former Sandia Labs scientist was in cahoots with the Republic of China. In addition to his home, they searched through his cell phones, computer hard drives, a laptop and thumb drive.

Huang is accused of using US Government resources and equipment to conduct research of nanotechnology for the foreign country.

Federal agents say they found evidence proving Huang was paid or reimbursed by groups in China for the cost of hotels, meals and entertainment during trips to China, including his airfare to get there.

During one of those trips investigators say he took his work-issued laptop. He then allegedly lied to Sandia Labs Counterintelligence officers, a violation of lab procedures.

Huang was fired for that transgression.

According to the affidavit those trips were not Huang’s only connection to China. Items listed in the indictment were found at his prep lab along with shipping invoices which showed materials were sent to his Albuquerque home from China.

The indictment states that the Feds believe Huang was showing the stolen research to several state run universities in China.