Two agricultural scientists from China have been charged with trying to steal samples of a variety of seeds from a biopharmaceutical company’s research facility in Kansas, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Thursday.

Weiqiang Zhang, 47, Manhattan and Wengui Yan, 63, Stuttgart, Ark. are charged with one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets. The victim in the case — identified in court records as Company A — has invested approximately $75 million in patented technology used to create a variety of seeds containing recombinant proteins.   The company has an extensive intellectual property portfolio of more than 100 issued and pending patents and exclusive licenses to issued patents.

Zhang and Yan are charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas. An affdavit in support of the complaint alleges that on Aug. 7 agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection found stolen seeds in the luggage of a group of visitors from China preparing to board a plan to return home. While in the United States, the group had visited various agricultural facilities and universities in the Midwest, as well as the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Ark.

According to the complaint:

–Zhang and Yan, both natives of the People’s Republic of China living lawfully in the U.S. arranged for the Chinese delegation to visit the United States in 2013.  Previously, the two had traveled to CHina at the same time in 2012 to visit a Crops Research Institute. Some of the people they met in China were members of the Chinese delegation that visited the United States in 2013.

–Zhang, worked as an agricultural seed breeder for Company A since 2008.

–Stolen seeds were delivered to members of the Chinese delegation during the delegation’s visit to the United States July 16 through August 7.

–Yan, who worked for the U.S. Department of agriculture as a rice geneticist at the Sale Bumpers National Research Centr, picked up the Chinese delegation from a motel in Stuttgart on July 22, and took them to the center.

–Seeds similar to what were found in the delegation’s possession as they left the United states in August were also found in Zhang’s residence on December 11.

If convicted, Zhang and Yan face a possible maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.