A former research scientist for Dow Chemical Company has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for stealing trade secrets and selling them to Chinese companies.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Wen Chyu Liu traveled extensively through China, marketing stolen information on Dow’s process for producing Tyrin CPE, an elastomeric polymer used in automotive and industrial hoses, electrical cable jackets, and vinyl siding.

He sold the information to Chinese companies interested in designing and building new CPE plants.

Liu had access to the secret information as a researcher at a Dow facility in Louisiana. He moved to the U.S. from China for graduate work and started at Dow in 1965, retiring in 1992.