That's the heart of the feds' criminal lawsuit against Jin, a U.S. citizen born in China, who was released on US$50,000 bail.

But the complex, dizzying saga doesn't end there. The case also involves claims that about a half-dozen Chinese engineers from both Motorola and Lemko, along with source code, as they made employment leaps between the two competitors, both located in Schaumburg, Ill.

In a separate civil lawsuit filed last September by Motorola against Jin and Lemko, and in subsequent court filings, Motorola also made computer fraud and trade-theft accusations against engineers Shaowei Pan, Xiaohua Wu, Xefend Bai and Xiohong Sheng, who are said to be Chinese nationals with experience working at both Motorola and Lemko.

If that weren't enough, Lemko filed a counter-suit last October and accused Motorola of breaching an agreement between the two companies by not telling Lemko that Motorola found source code belonging to Lemko on the computer used by Sheng. Sheng is described as a former project lead engineer at Lemko who abruptly resigned on Nov. 30, 2006, and began working at Motorola shortly thereafter. Motorola terminated Sheng in July of last year.

The Motorola civil lawsuit against Jin, Lemko and the Chinese engineers who worked for both companies at various points doesn't include the accusation about sharing trade secrets with the Chinese government. But that's the target the feds are going after, and a Chicago judge recently decided, much to Motorola's dismay, that the federal criminal case should proceed before the Motorola civil lawsuit.