Two Silicon Valley engineers set to go on trial for stealing trade secrets had their charges upgraded on Wednesday to economic espionage. Economic espionage, though rarely charged, is the most serious crime under the 1996 Economic Espionage Act.

A San Jose U.S. District Court grand jury indicted Lan Lee, 42, of Palo Alto and business partner Yuefei Ge, 34, of San Jose for allegedly developing microchips through their company, SICO Microsystems Inc., based on stolen designs. They are accused of reaching out to Chinese government agencies for funding, including a branch of the Chinese military.

Mountain View-based NetLogic Microsystems Inc. and the San Jose office of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. are two of the companies from which Lee and Ge allegedly stole classified documents.

Only three people have ever been found guilty of economic espionage in the United States – all were from Silicon Valley.