An electrical engineer contracted by the US Navy took sensitive information about underwater drones it was developing and secretly uploaded it onto his personal Dropbox account, according to prosecutors.

Jared Sparks, 35, of Oklahoma, was found guilty this week of trade secret theft and transmission following a trial in Connecticut federal court.

He was hit with charges back in November 2016, along with another defense contractor employed by Sparks’ company — LBI Inc. — which began working with the Navy in 2011.

Prosecutors said the pair helped design and build underwater drones for the Office of Naval Research, as well as deployable ice buoys used to gather weather data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“During the course of his employment with LBI, Sparks collaborated with Charles River Analytics (CRA), a Massachusetts-based software company that developed software to be integrated into LBI’s unmanned underwater vehicles,” DOJ officials said in a statement Tuesday.

“In late 2011, CRA sought to expand into the hardware business and eventually agreed with the Office of Naval Research that it would complete the testing for a number of the unmanned vehicles designed and developed by LBI,” the officials explained. “Sometime after April 2011, Sparks began exploring employment with CRA, and was eventually hired by that company in January 2012. Before he left LBI, however, Sparks surreptitiously uploaded thousands of LBI files to his personal account with Dropbox, a cloud-based file-storage application. Those files included LBI’s accounting and engineering files as well as photographs related to designs and renderings used to fabricate and manufacture LBI’s unmanned underwater vehicles and buoys.”

While Sparks and the other contractor allegedly worked together on the scheme, he wound up being the only one who was found guilty. The Sooner State resident was able to slide on “multiple counts,” according to DOJ officials, but still faces up to 60 years in prison after being found guilty on six counts.

“Jared Sparks stole thousands of documents — including proprietary designs and renderings — from his former employer when he left to work for a competitor,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan. “[This week’s] verdict sends a clear message that the Department of Justice is committed to protecting American intellectual property and will aggressively prosecute those who steal it.”