Aircraft engineer stole designs from company, feds say. Now SC man is going to prison

A contractor for a Georgia aircraft manufacturer has been sentenced to nearly 7 years in prison after prosecutors say he pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal design secrets from the company, according to the Department of Justice.

Gilbert Basaldua, 63, of Hilton Head, South Carolina, worked as a “numerical control engineer contractor” for an aircraft manufacturing company in Georgia from October 2016 through November 2018, according to a Department of Justice news release dated Oct. 20.

He was accused of stealing aircraft wing designs and “anti-icing testing information” from different aircraft manufacturers, including the company that employed him, officials say.

During its investigation, the FBI discovered a document at Basaluda’s residence that was considered his company’s “backbone document,” as well as drawings of one of the company’s aircraft wings and information on how to stop ice from forming on planes, according to a sentencing memo.

The trade secret information contained in the “backbone document” included “specific, unique improvements and technical specifications developed by (the company),” such as the sealant used on a wing to protect it from extreme temperatures and the amount of polishing the front of a wing can hold, the sentencing memo says.

Text messages between Basaldua and his co-conspirators show that they had gotten a wing from the company and intended to use it for testing in a NASA wind tunnel, allowing them to avoid the years of research usually required for testing, according to the sentencing memo.

Basaldua intended to “use the victim’s stolen trade secret information to design, develop and certify an anti-ice system for sale to the victim’s competitor(s),” according to the sentencing memo. This would cause serious financial harm to the company, if not put it out of business, the memo says.

Basaldua’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

The court also found that Basaldua’s high-up position as a project manager allowed him special access to materials. He used this access to “fraudulently convey the information outside of the company,” the memo says.

“Theft is theft, whether it’s a bag full of cash or a digital file holding specialized design information – and Gilbert Basaldua and his co-conspirators are thieves,” David Estes, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said in a statement. “This sentence will hold him accountable for attempting to enrich himself by stealing valuable information from a private company.”

Basaldua, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal trade secrets and interstate transportation of stolen property in 2021, was sentenced to 80 months, or nearly seven years, in federal prison with three years of supervised release after completion of his term, according to the Department of Justice.

This story was originally published October 21, 2022 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Aircraft engineer stole designs from company, feds say. Now SC man is going to prison."