H.R. 4081 — Foreign Adversary Federal Offense Act of 2025

This section establishes enhanced penalties under the Economic Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. 1831) for offenses involving the theft of trade secrets to benefit a foreign government, instrumentality, or agent when committed to advance the interests of a covered nation (as defined in 10 U.S.C. 4872, generally referring to nations posing threats to U.S. national security such as China). Specifically, it (1) increases the individual penalty to a fine of up to $5 million or imprisonment of not less than 10 years and not more than 15 years (from up to 15 years with no minimum), or both, with ineligibility for supervised release; (2) further increases the individual penalty to imprisonment of not less than 10 years and not more than 20 years if the offense results in severe harm to economic or national security; and (3) increases the organizational penalty to the greater of $20 million or five times the value of the stolen trade secret to the organization, including avoided reproduction costs (from the greater of $10 million or three times the value). It defines severe harm as the transmission of nonpublic information relating to critical infrastructure (as defined in 42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)) where acting on such information would pose a significant threat of incapacitation or destruction of the infrastructure. (Thus, these penalties apply in addition to standard penalties and target espionage linked to specified adversarial nations.)

This section increases the criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. 793 for gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information committed to advance the interests of a covered nation (as defined in 10 U.S.C. 4872), to a fine, imprisonment for not less than 15 years or for any term of years or life, or both (from a fine, imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both). (Thus, the enhanced penalties apply to any violation of subsections (a) through (f), which prohibit specified acts such as entering defense facilities, copying defense-related documents or sketches, or receiving such materials, when done with intent or reason to believe the information will injure the United States or aid a foreign nation.)