U.S. startups should be wary of knowledge theft disguised as investment

Foreign governments are increasingly using venture capital investment to spy on U.S. companies and pilfer their intellectual property, or IP. That’s according to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, an agency of the federal government. Private investment from overseas is vital to sustaining U.S. startups and innovation, but it’s also a method used by other countries — primarily China, but also Russia, for example — to harm the U.S. economy and compromise national security.

Michael Casey, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, discussed the problem with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Sabri Ben-Achour. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. READ MORE