(Yicai Global) March 27 -- A jury in Wisconsin found Sinovel Wind Group Co. guilty of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, theft of trade secrets and wire fraud, the Chinese turbine manufacturer said.

Prosecutors said that the Beijing-based firm stole software code from American Superconductor Corp. Sinovel received an email from its US attorney saying that the jury had reached a unanimous decision to convict the company.

The US Department of Justice charged Sinovel and three other parties in the case in June 2013. US District Judge James Peterson is expected to sentence the group on June 4.

In response to the conviction, Sinovel said it is prepared to take active measures to secure its interests and to use legal means to defend the legitimate rights of the company and its shareholders.

The verdict "can't be good for US-China relations," Bloomberg quoted David Bohrer, an intellectual property attorney who was not involved in the case, as saying.