First Foreign Economic Espionage Indictment; Defendants Steal Trade
Secrets from Cleveland Clinic Foundation
May 8, 2001
Emily M. Sweeney, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio,
today announced that a grand jury sitting in Cleveland, Ohio returned a four-count
indictment against Takashi Okamoto and Hiroaki Serizawa, charging them with
conspiracy to commit the following violations: The Economic Espionage Act,
interstate transportation of stolen property, and making false statements
to the government; two counts of violating The Economic Espionage Act; and
one count of interstate transportation of stolen property. These are the first
charges setting forth violations of The Economic Espionage Act in the United
States. Serizawa, age 39, resides in Kansas City, Kansas, while Okamoto, age
40, is believed to reside in Japan.
The indictment charges that Okamoto, from in or about January, 1997, to on
or about July 26, 1999, was employed by the Lerner Research Institute (LRI)
of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) to conduct research into the cause
and potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. Serizawa, from on or
about December 16, 1996, to the present, was employed by the Kansas University
Medical Center (KUMC) in Kansas City, Kansas. According to the Indictment,
Serizawa was a close friend and peer of Okamoto from the time they met in
Boston, Massachusetts in the mid 1990s. The first count of the indictment
charges that Okamoto and Serizawa, from January, 1998, to September, 1999,
conspired to misappropriate from the CCF certain genetic materials called
Dioxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) and cell line reagents and constructs which were
developed by researchers employed by CCF, with funding provided by the CCF
and the National Institutes of Health, to study the genetic cause of and possible
treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. Alzheimer’s Disease affects an
estimated 4,000,000 people in the United States alone, and is the most common
cause of dementia.
The indictment charges that, as an object of this conspiracy, Okamoto and
Serizawa, and others known to the grand jury, would and did confer a benefit
upon RIKEN, an instrumentality of the government of Japan, by providing RIKEN
with the DNA and cell line reagents and constructs which were misappropriated
from the CCF. According to the indictment, the Institute of Physical and Chemical
Research (RIKEN) was a quasi-public corporation located in Saitama-Ken, Japan
which received over 94 percent of its operational funding from the Ministry
of Science and Technology of the government of Japan. The Brain Science Institute
(BSI) of RIKEN was formed in 1997 as a specific initiative of the Ministry
of Science and Technology to conduct research in the area of neuroscience,
including research into the genetic cause of, and possible treatment for,
Alzheimer’s Disease.
According to the indictment, in or about April, 1999, RIKEN offered and defendant
Okamoto accepted a position as a neuroscience researcher to begin in the Fall
of 1999. The indictment charges that from on or about the late evening hours
of July 8, 1999, to on or about the early morning hours of July 9, 1999, Okamoto
and a third co-conspirator known as "Dr. A" misappropriated DNA
and cell line reagents and constructs from Laboratory 164, where Okamoto conducted
research at the CCF. Also during this time, the indictment charges that Okamoto
and Dr. A destroyed, sabotaged and caused to be destroyed and sabotaged, the
DNA and cell line reagents and constructs which they did not remove from Laboratory
164 at the CCF. The indictment further charges that, on or about July 10,
1999, Okamoto stored four boxes containing the stolen DNA and cell line reagents
at the Cleveland, Ohio home of "Dr. B," a colleague at the CCF,
with whom Okamoto was residing temporarily. On or about July 12, 1999, Okamoto
then retrieved the boxes of stolen DNA and cell line reagents and constructs
from Dr. B’s home and sent them from Cleveland, Ohio by private interstate
carrier to defendant Serizawa at Kansas City, Kansas. On or about July 26,
1999, defendant Okamoto resigned from his research position at CCF and, on
or about August 3, 1999, started his research position with RIKEN in Japan.
Okamoto returned to the United States and, on or about August 16, 1999, retrieved
the stolen DNA and cell line reagents and constructs from Serizawa’s
laboratory at KUMC, in Kansas City, Kansas. The indictment charges that, before
Okamoto left for Japan, he and Serizawa filled small laboratory vials with
tap water and made meaningless markings on the labels on the vials; Okamoto
instructed Serizawa to provide these worthless vials to officials at the CCF
in the event they came looking for the missing DNA and cell line reagents.
The indictment charges that on or about August 17, 1999, Okamoto departed
the United States for Japan and carried with him the stolen DNA and cell line
constructs reagents. The last overt act charged in the conspiracy was that,
on or about September, 1999, Serizawa provided materially false, fictitious
and fraudulent statements in an interview of him by special agents of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, who were investigating the theft of the DNA
and cell line reagents from the CCF.
Count two charges that the defendants committed economic espionage by stealing
trade secrets that were property of the CCF, specifically, 10 DNA and cell
line reagents developed through the efforts and research of researchers employed
and funded by the CCF and by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Count three also charges a violation of The Economic Espionage Act against
Okamoto and Serizawa for, without authorization, altering and destroying trade
secrets that were the property of CCF, specifically, DNA and cell line reagents
developed through the efforts of researchers employed by and funded by the
CCF and by a grant from The National Institutes of Health. The last count
of the indictment charges Okamoto and Serizawa with transporting, transmitting
and transferring in interstate and foreign commerce, DNA and cell line reagents
developed through the efforts of researchers employed and funded by the CCF
and by a grant from The National Institutes of Health, knowing that such goods
were stolen, converted and taken by fraudulent means.
Conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years incarceration and a $250,000
fine, while economic espionage carries a maximum penalty of 15 years incarceration
and a $500,000 fine. Interstate transportation of stolen property carries
a maximum penalty of 10 years incarceration and a $250,000 fine.
This case is being prosecuted by Robert E. Wallace, Senior Trial Attorney
from the Internal Security Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of
Justice, and Christian H. Stickan, Assistant United States Attorney for the
Northern District of Ohio. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, in Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City, Kansas, Boston, Massachusetts
and New York, New York, with the assistance of the United States Attorney’s
Office for the District of Kansas. The investigation is continuing.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is
entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove
guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
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