from 1996 to 2013, Li worked for an unidentified Southern California which specialises in precision measuring instruments and metrological technology and equipment. The company designs and sells a range of products such as micrometers, callipers, coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), and optical measurement systems.

Li worked at the company as a senior software engineer, then as "a program manager". From 2013 to 2018, Li worked as chief technologist at a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. During his employment, Li worked on the development of the source code for one of the company’s software programs, which was considered its proprietary information.

In July 2013, Li signed an employee handbook and confidentiality agreement with the company that required him to turn over all writings, records, files, technology, trade secrets or data containing any proprietary information belonging to the company. The agreement also prohibited Li from copying the company’s proprietary information without written permission.

Li admitted in his plea agreement that he occasionally downloaded the company’s proprietary information onto his personal devices without permission. Li failed to return all the proprietary information belonging to the company after its subsidiary dismissed him in January 2018.

In February 2018, Li operated a consulting company named JSL Innovations Inc. and in March 2020, he signed an employment agreement with Suzhou Universal Group Technology Co. Ltd., a China-based chain-and-bearing manufacturer. Li continued to work for Suzhou Universal until his arrest in May 2023. During this period, Li continued to knowingly possess the American company's proprietary information and – more than once – accessed this information without that company’s authorisation.

Li admitted that he used the proprietary information for his own economic benefit and that it would injure the American company's interests.

On 8th May, 2025, Li, 66, was sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined Li "approximately" (according to the FBI) USD14,000. He was ordered to pay an additional USD17,000 in restitution. LI was ordered to self-surrender by 12 August, 2025.