PORTLAND - An Oregon man is accused of espionage. But not for stealing government secrets. Instead, the FBI says he tried to sell trade secrets from Nike.

53-year old Reynold Chapin appeared in federal court for a preliminary hearing Thursday afternoon. FBI agent Phil Slinkard testified Chapin claimed to have insider information about the Beaverton-based company.

The agent says, Chapin wrote an anonymous letter to the CEO of the Saucony Corporation. The shoe maker is a competitor of Nike. He also suggests similar letters were sent to four other CEO's.

Investigators say Chapin claimed to have a copy of Nike's unreleased Fall 2008 catalog. He was willing to leak the information, including designs and prices, to the highest bidder.

"This is espionage. This kind of crime, when you are trying to sell trade secrets is considered espionage under federal law," explains Beth Anne Steele of the Portland FBI Office.

In the letter, the agent says, Chapin included an email account. The FBI says, agents traced the Yahoo account to the Multnomah County Library. A subpoena of library records helped to identify the suspect as Chapin, according to the FBI.

The federal agent says, he then contacted Chapin, posing as a shoe company executive. The undercover agent offered two-thousand dollars for the catalog. The FBI's Steele says, "We were able to set up a meeting between the person we believe was trying to sell the catalog and one of our agents." The two planned to meet at PDX on Wednesday morning. When Chapin showed up with the catalog, federal agents moved in and made the arrest.

The Oregon man is charged with theft of trade secrets. "This is kind of like someone finding your playbook," explains Brian Berger, host of Sports Business Radio. Berger says, companies like Nike go to great lengths to protect trade secrets.

According to the FBI, Chapin says he got the unreleased Nike catalog while working at a local printing press. Nike released a statement late Thursday, “Nike appreciates the professional investigation conducted by the FBI regarding this attempted sale of our proprietary information. We are fully cooperating with the authorities and also will take internal steps regarding the circumstances that led to this situation.”