Two men, including one from Griswold, were charged in connection with "a scheme to steal trade secrets" from LBI Inc., a Groton-based defense contractor that designs unmanned underwater vehicles for the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Deirdre M. Daly announced Monday.

A grand jury in Bridgeport charged Jay Williams, 45, of Griswold, and Jared Dylan Sparks, 33, of Ardmore, Okla., with one count of conspiracy to steal, upload, transmit and possess stolen trade secrets, which is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison, according to a news release.

The jury also charged Sparks with seven counts of theft of trade secrets, seven counts of uploading of trade secrets, two counts of transmission of trade secrets and five counts of possession of stolen trade secrets, the release stated. The jury charged Williams with seven counts of possession of stolen trade secrets.

If convicted, the defendants would face up to 10 years in prison on each count, according to the release. Both were released on bond.

Sparks had worked at LBI Inc. as an electrical engineer from January 2010 to December 2011, while Williams worked at the company as a electro-mechanical technician from May 2010 until November 2011.

While at LBI, both men collaborated with staff at Charles River Analytics, a company in Massachusetts, the release stated. The Massachusetts company was developing software to be integrated into the unmanned underwater vehicles.

According to court documents, Charles River Analytics had negotiated with the Office of Naval Research in late 2010 and early 2011 to not only develop software, but also test the integration of the software with the prototypes developed by LBI — a task the Massachusetts company had never done before and needed to hire new employees for. 

Sparks and Williams looked into working at Charles River Analytics and eventually began working there in January 2012.

Information obtained through search warrants found that both Sparks and Williams had uploaded proprietary information from LBI into dropbox accounts during a period at least from May to November of 2011, the release stated.

According to court documents, the allegations against Sparks and Williams include that they uploaded "confidential and proprietary information," from LBI, including electronic files, photos, drawings, and diagrams.

While employed at Charles River Analytics, they worked on at least one of the vehicles developed by LBI, the release stated.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating, according to the release. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacabed Rodriguez-Coss and Trial Attorney Brian Resler from the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, are prosecuting the case.