--- description: The Chinese citizen took part in a corn conspiracy. title: Corn Spy Admits Trying to Steal Secrets of the U.S. Kernel image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ef3f52098cfdee4/69887b17cd1bbaf2806ff28c/corn-spy-iowa-china-admit.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Corn Spy Admits Trying to Steal Secrets of the U.S. Kernel  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 28, 2016 3:09 PM CUT  Tall Rows of Corn Tall Rows of CornDusty Pixel photography—Getty Images/Flickr RF  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 28, 2016 3:09 PM CUT Security for Dupont Pioneer’s cornfields in Iowa suspected something when they detected [men crawling around](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/business/international/china-us-monsanto-dupont-corn.html? "undefined") in the cornfields, and alerted the FBI two years ago. Now, one man — Chinese citizen Mo Hailong — has admitted to attempted kernel theft. Mo was a part of a conspiracy to smuggle U.S. corn from producers Dupont Pioneer and Monsanto in Iowa and ship it to China, where scientists would attempt to replicate the corn’s genetic properties. Prosecutors accused Mo of working with others in the group Kings Nower Seed, a subsidiary of the Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group, the Associated Press reports. Mo entered a plea agreement on Wednesday, in which he will receive five of the highest possible 10-year sentence. He will be sentenced in Des Moines, and may be immediately deported after he completes the prison term. Mo goes by Robert Mo, and is a permanent resident of Florida. His wife and children are American citizens. \[[_AP_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/business/international/china-us-monsanto-dupont-corn.html? "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4197944/corn-spy-iowa-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4197944/corn-spy-iowa-china/"},"headline":"Corn Spy Admits Trying to Steal Secrets of the U.S. Kernel","datePublished":"2016-01-28T15:09:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:31:56.689Z","description":"The Chinese citizen took part in a corn conspiracy","url":"https://time.com/4197944/corn-spy-iowa-china/","keywords":["Food"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ef3f52098cfdee4/69887b17cd1bbaf2806ff28c/corn-spy-iowa-china-admit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ef3f52098cfdee4/69887b17cd1bbaf2806ff28c/corn-spy-iowa-china-admit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"corn-spy-iowa-china-admit","caption":"corn-spy-iowa-china-admit","creditText":"Dusty Pixel photography—Getty Images/Flickr RF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4197944/corn-spy-iowa-china/","name":"Corn Spy Admits Trying to Steal Secrets of the U.S. Kernel"}}]}] ```