CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Chinese scientist has been arrested and charged with stealing trade secrets from an Indiana agricultural company where he worked developing organic insecticides, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Kexue (John) Huang, 45, formerly a research scientist at Dow AgroSciences LLC in Carmel, Indiana, was charged in a 17-count indictment with economic espionage intended to benefit China's government and transportation of stolen property.

Huang worked from 2003 to early 2008 at Dow, helping the company develop organic insect control products including organic insecticides.

Huang violated a confidentiality agreement and published an article in China containing trade secrets through Hunan Normal University, according to the indictment made public by the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of Indiana.

He was accused of directing research on Dow's products at the Chinese university's laboratories, and sought facilities to compete with Dow using its trade secrets.

"Economic espionage robs our businesses and inventors of hard-earned, protected research, and is particularly harmful when the theft of these ideas is meant to benefit a foreign government," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a statement.

Huang was arrested July 13 in Massachusetts and made his initial court appearance on Tuesday in Indiana federal court. He faces up to 15 years in prison on each of the 12 counts of economic espionage and 10 years on each of five counts of transportation of stolen property.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Jerry Norton)