For the second time in six months, a Chinese national working for Apple has been caught collecting autonomous vehicle trade secrets, with the intent to deliver to an Apple competitor for his own benefit. According to a federal criminal complaint, an Apple employee reported Jizhong Chen for suspicious activity after the hardware developer engineer was seen taking pictures of confidential work plans.

The complaint goes on to state Chen allowed Apple’s Global Security team to search his personal computer, where Chen had stored thousands of files of Apple’s intellectual property, including manuals, schematics, and diagrams. Chen had also taken about 100 sensitive photos inside an Apple building. The tech company turned over all evidence to the FBI, including an assembly drawing of an Apple-designed wiring harness for an autonomous vehicle.

After further investigation, it was discovered that Chen had recently applied for a job at one of Apple’s competitors in China, who also engineered autonomous vehicles. According to CNBC, Chen told Apple he started backing up his work files on his personal computer as an “insurance policy”, after he had been placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) in December 2018. Apple confirmed the secret files had been discovered before Chen had even been placed on the PIP.

According to the official affidavit, Apple suspended Chen without pay on January 11th, and was taken into custody the day before his scheduled flight to China. Chen is the second Apple employee accused of stealing secret information pertaining to Apple’s autonomous vehicle unit. Last July, Apple engineer Xiaolang Zhang was arrested for attempting to trade confidential material to China’s XMotors.

“Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of our IP very seriously. We are working with authorities on this matter and are referring all questions to the FBI,” stated Apple.

Although Apple has attempted to keep its autonomous vehicle unit, Project Titan, under wraps, the department keeps ending up in the headlines. Earlier this year, it was revealed Apple had laid off over 200 employees from Project Titan, claiming the company had other key areas to focus on at the moment.