Game of War director arrested for trying to board plane with secret data

Machine Zone has found itself embroiled in a second trade secrets row in a single week.

The Wall Street Journal that the developer’s director of global infrastructure Jing Zeng, who is at the was arrested as he attempted to board a plane to Beijing, carrying with him data about Game of War user behaviour.

Specifically, the data is said to have provided valuable insight and a huge competitive advantage over other online game providers and competitors”.

The company claims that having joined Machine Zone late last year, Zeng had in recent weeks expressed unhappiness about his boss and his team. After a request to change teams was denied, Zeng was asked to leave – but allegedly downloaded the data in question before he did so.

When confronted, Machine Zone alleges that Zeng tried to use the stolen data as a bargaining chip for a lucrative severance agreement. Having also given conflicting accounts of how many copies of the data had been made, contact was made with the FBI and Zeng subsequently arrested.

Amazingly, this trade secrets scandal seems completely unrelated to Monday’s news that Machine Zone is suing Kabam after the latter appeared to produce confidential data at a Casual Connect conference.