World Bulletin/News Desk

A U.S. judge sentenced a California businessman to 15 years in prison on Thursday for stealing DuPont trade secrets to help a state-owned Chinese company develop a white pigment used in a wide range of products.

A jury found Walter Liew guilty earlier this year on over 20 criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit economic espionage and trade secret theft. The government had requested a sentence of between 17-1/2 years and nearly 22 years in prison. Attorneys for Liew argued he should receive a maximum sentence of eight years.

At Thursday's sentencing, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said Liew, a U.S. citizen, "turned against his adopted country for greed."

At his trial, U.S. prosecutors said Liew paid former DuPont employees to reveal trade secrets that would help China's Pangang Group develop a white pigment called chloride-route titanium dioxide, also known as TiO2. The pigment is used to make a variety of white-tinted products, including paper, paint and plastics.

Prosecutors also charged Pangang Group, a steel manufacturer in Sichuan province, in the case, but that indictment stalled after a U.S. judge ruled that prosecutors' attempts to notify the Chinese company of the charges were legally insufficient.