A Michigan couple found guilty of stealing General Motors trade secrets related to hybrid-car technology to help develop similar vehicles in China will be sentenced today in a U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Former GM engineer Shanshan Du and her husband, Yu Qin, stole GM hybrid technology to build a hybrid electric vehicle in China with Chery Automobile Co., a Chinese auto manufacturer and GM competitor.

Du, who was hired in 2000 as an engineer for GM’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Group in suburban Detroit, copied 16,262 documents covering hybrid vehicles on a thumb drive in February 2005 — about five days after being offered a severance agreement. Of the more than 16,000 documents Du copied, 18 contained trade secrets.

In November, Du was convicted of conspiracy to possess trade secrets without authorization and two counts of unauthorized possession of trade secrets. She was acquitted of three counts of wire fraud.

According to The Associated Press, Qin’s attorney is asking for probation because GM suffered no actual loss.

Qin was found guilty of conspiracy to possess trade secrets without authorization, two counts of unauthorized possession of trade secrets, three counts of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.