Canadian Businessman in China Steals Tesla Secrets

American federal prosecutors announced the arrest of a Canadian business tycoon living in China who is accused of conspiring to sell Tesla trade secrets to undercover agents.

The man’s name is Klaus Pflugbeil, a 58-year-old from Toronto, Canada, who has served in top management positions at several companies and even owns his own business. 

He worked with a business partner named Yilong Shao, who is being given the same charges from US federal agents. Though, he is still at large. 

Federal prosecutors believe that the pair did this for the benefit of their own company because of emails sent between the two. With that said, they’re still innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.

But despite his extensive background in business, there hasn’t been much coverage on the Canadian man himself.

So, just who is Klaus Pflugbeil? What was he even doing in China in the first place and how did he get there?

Well, let’s get to the beginning of what’s known about the businessman.

Klaus Pflugbeil was born in either 1965 or 1966 in Canada. His first languages were English and German, which would play into his favour for his early professional life.

His LinkedIn profile boasts that he was educated in America and has worked in nine countries over the course of his professional career.

Everyone has to start somewhere, though; in 1983, Pflugbeil got the first job listed on his LinkedIn. He worked as a Mechanical Technologist at Siemens AG, the largest industrial manufacturing company in Germany, and lived in Leipzig during his time there.

Not much is known about what his tasks were at the company, though he was involved in the application of two different patents on behalf of the company in 1991 and 1992, showing the early knack he had for entrepreneurship. 

What’s most interesting about this is that his professional profile says that he left Siemens in 1990. 

During the time of the patent applications, he was working as a project manager at Treco Machine and Tool, a Toronto-based company specializing in high precision machining for the aircraft industry where he stayed for five years. 

It would be in 1995 that Pflugbeil would start his job that would bring him to China. Pflugbeil worked at Hibar Systems Limited, a Toronto-based battery manufacturer. He made his move to China in 1999 to work as the general manager of their location in the country. 

His Xing profile says that he managed the technical sales and manufacturing office in Ningbo, a city 93 miles south of Shanghai, though it doesn’t speak of any of his experience working for the company in Canada from 1995 to 1999.

Ningbo would end up being the city that Pflugbeil lived in over the course of his time in China.

While fulfilling the position, Pflugbeil was tasked with managing the office’s finances which included budgets and forecasts, setting up a sub-contractor network and in-house manufacturing, and installing and managing the set-up of manufacturing equipment at the location. 

Hibar Systems was its own company until 2019. Canadian court documents reveal that it was in this year that Tesla quietly acquired the company. 

Through this connection and Yilong Shao’s more recent involvement there, that’s suspected to be how they got their hands on Tesla’s trade secrets.

After leaving in 2009, Pflugbeil continued to live and work in Ningbo for pretty much the rest of his time in China until his arrest in America this week. 

Between those events, he worked as in management positions at a couple of different companies, though three of them are pretty notable:

From 2014 to 2022, Pflugbeil was the general manager of VEIT, a German textile company. While it isn’t exactly clear what he got up to there, it’s the longest job he held since leaving Hibar Systems. 

In 2020, Pflugbeil became the owner of Ningbo Psycho Machine Company Limited, a company specializing in precision machine and module assembly, testing, sourcing and quality control. This happens to be the same company he wanted to bolster by selling Tesla’s trade secrets. 

Not much is known about the company itself, though. Its LinkedIn is pretty barebones and information on it is pretty sparse. 

But perhaps the most interesting of his recent business ventures is his role as Global President of Ningbo-based industrial manufacturing company Hife Science and Technology.

He says the position is going to give him more insight on how to better manage the Ningbo Psycho Machine Company, which is a pretty bold thing to say when first getting the position.

Interestingly enough, a man named Roland Pflugbeil is the head of the company’s Brazilian sites. Though there isn’t any confirmation that they’re related, they share the same surname and look very much alike. If the shoe fits. 

More and more information about the case and Klaus Pflugbeil will come out as time passes. Though, there’s still so many unanswered questions.