Federal judge fines Chinese wind turbine maker $1.5 million

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge has fined a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer $1.5 million for stealing trade secrets.

Prosecutors charged Sinovel Wind Group LLC with conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and wire fraud in 2013.

According to prosecutors, Sinovel employees stole software from AMSC, a U.S. company. The employees convinced an AMSC worker in Austria to secretly download source code from AMSC computers in 2011.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison handed down the fine Friday. He also put Sinovel on probation for a year.

Prosecutors said in a news release that Sinoval paid AMSC $32.5 million this week and plans to pay another $25 million to the U.S. company during its probation year.

Sinoval attorney Alexander Akerman didn’t immediately reply to an email.