He learned the business from Chemours. Then he tried to steal their trade secrets.

A Canadian man will spend 10 months in prison for stealing trade secrets from the Chemours Company.

Delawareonline.com reported in June that the man, Jerry Jindong Xu, who worked for Chemours in marketing, stole dozens of confidential files from the Wilmington-based company in an effort to begin his own business.

Chemours, which spun off from DuPont in 2015, has a plant in DeLisle that manufactures titanium dioxide.

Xu pleaded guilty in June 8 in a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom. He was sentenced to 10 months, or the time already served in a federal penitentiary. He was taken immediately to Philadelphia International Airport and returned to Canada. He is barred from ever returning to the U.S.

Xu, who was born and raised in China, worked at a DuPont plant in China for seven years before moving to Canada. The plants in China and Canada manufacture sodium cyanide, which is a chemical used to mine gold, silver and other precious metals.

Xu, in his final year of employment with the company, told prosecutors he cultivated contacts in China in the cyanide and mining industries. He also fabricated assignments to accumulate data on the business and took pictures of the plant system diagrams during a tour of the plant.

Xu said a Chinese investor told him stealing trade secrets was common practice in his country. Xu told one investor he wanted to do this “for himself and not to slave away at this only for the benefit of someone else,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware.

An co-conspirator helped Xu with his plan, according to the documents.

This story was originally published July 18, 2018 at 5:50 PM.