Sunday, April 21, 2013

What Happened at Agiltron?

" Federal agents raid Woburn defense firm" by Milton Valencia and Michael Farrell  |  Globe Staff, January 23, 2013

A team of federal agents and local police, in an apparent investigation, searched Wednesday the premises of a Woburn manufacturing company that has military contracts.

The officials would not identify the scope of the investigation at the Agiltron Inc. plant on Presidential Way, saying only that there is no threat to public safety.

The FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement were involved in the raid, working with other agencies, ­although officials said the raid was not related to an immigration matter.

No arrests were reported. But the search of the company, which manufactures photonic components and systems and employs more than 100 people, set off speculation about the ­nature of the inquiry.

The company describes itself on its website as a provider of industry-leading “optical communication and sensing ­solutions” and has had contracts with the Pentagon and the Department of Energy....

Agiltron is not particularly well known in the Boston-area technology community. It was founded in 2001 by Dr. Jing Zhao, a former executive with Corning Inc., and over the years amassed a team that includes more than 50 doctoral-level scientists with specialties in such fields as advanced fiber optics and nanotechnology....

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More trade secrets "stolen" by the Chinese?

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Also see: 

Compounding Woes For Woburn's Pallimed
Slow Saturday Special: FDA Finds More Problems at Compounding Pharmacies