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Daily Archives: July 30, 2014

Stealing Trade Secrets and Economic Espionage: An Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1831 and 1832

CRS – Stealing Trade Secrets and Economic Espionage: An Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1831 and 1832. Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist in American Public Law. July 25, 2014.

“Stealing a trade secret is a federal crime when the information relates to a product in interstate or foreign commerce, 18 U.S.C. 1832 (theft of trade secrets), or when the intended beneficiary is a foreign power, 18 U.S.C. 1831 (economic espionage). Section 1832 requires that the thief be aware that the misappropriation will injure the secret’s owner to the benefit of someone else. Section 1831 requires only that the thief intend to benefit a foreign government or one of its instrumentalities. Section 1832 (theft) violations are punishable by imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or a fine of not more than $250,000 (not more than $5 million for organizations), or both. Section 1831 (espionage) violations by individuals are punishable by imprisonment for not more than 15 years, or a fine of the greater of not more than $5 million, or both. Section 1831 violations by organizations are punishable by a fine of not more than the greater of $10 million or three times the value of the stolen trade secret. Maximum fines for both individuals and organizations may be higher when the amount of the gain or loss associated with the offense is substantial. Any attempt or conspiracy to commit either offense carries the same penalties as the underlying crime. Offenders must also be ordered to pay restitution. Moreover, property derived from the offense or used to facilitate its commission is subject to confiscation. The sections reach violations occurring overseas, if the offender is a United States national or if an act in furtherance of the crime is committed within the United States. Depending on the circumstances, misconduct captured in the two sections may be prosecuted under other federal statutes as well. A defendant charged with stealing trade secrets is often indictable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the National Stolen Property Act, and/or the federal wire fraud statute. One indicted on economic espionage charges may often be charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent and on occasion with disclosing classified information or under the general espionage statutes.”

Israel: Background and U.S. Relations

CRS – Israel: Background and U.S. Relations. Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. July 22, 2014 “Periodic violence between Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip—including the Islamist group Hamas—and Israel’s military became a larger conflict on July 6-7, 2014. Israel began a ground operation in Gaza on July 17 with the stated objective of destroying tunnels used… Continue Reading

Changing Growth Trends Carry New Global Spillovers

“As the global economy shifts from crisis to recovery mode, the changing growth patterns—with advanced economies generally recovering and emerging markets slowing on a broad basis—carry new spillover risks, says the IMF staff. The 2014 Spillover Report, which assesses the impact of policy actions in one country on others (spillovers) and the possible consequences for the original… Continue Reading

Competition and the Cost of Medicare’s Prescription Drug Program

“The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (generally referred to as the Medicare Modernization Act, or MMA) substantially expanded the federal Medicare program by creating the prescription drug benefit known as Part D. In fiscal year 2013, Medicare Part D covered 39 million people. The federal government spent $59 billion net of… Continue Reading

Survey Assesses How Uninsured Californians Fared After ACA Open Enrollment

“Last summer, just before the first open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) conducted a baseline survey of California’s uninsured nonelderly adult population. After the open enrollment period came to a close, we conducted a second survey with the same group of individuals who participated in the baseline… Continue Reading

A National Consensus: Cell Phone Location Records Are Private – EFF

“The Fourth Amendment protects us from “unreasonable” government searches of our persons, houses, papers and effects. How courts should determine what is and isn’t reasonable in our increasingly digital world is the subject of a new amicus brief we filed today in San Francisco federal court.  At issue is historical cell site data—the records of the cell towers a customer’s… Continue Reading

The FRBNY Staff Underlying Inflation Gauge: UIG

Marlene Amstad, Simon M Potter and Robert Rich – Working Papers No 453, July 2014 “Monetary policymakers and long-term investors would benefit greatly from a measure of underlying inflation that uses all relevant information, is available in real-time, and forecasts inflation better than traditional underlying inflation measures such as core inflation measures. This paper presents the “Federal Reserve Bank of… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Defense Contracting, Federal Grants, Healthcare.gov, Littoral Combat Ship

DEFENSE CONTRACTING: Factors DOD Considers When Choosing Best Value Processes Are Consistent with Guidance for Selected Acquisitions, GAO-14-584: Published: Jul 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Jul 30, 2014. FEDERAL GRANTS: Agencies Performed Internal Control Assessments Consistent with Guidance and Are Addressing Internal Control Deficiencies, GAO-14-539: Published: Jul 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Jul 30, 2014. HEALTHCARE.GOV: Contract Planning and Oversight Practices Were Ineffective… Continue Reading