That's most likely the case here. FFS, the guy stole 6GB of proprietary data and police found the stolen design files pinned on his wall at home, so the guy was fully committed to his scammer role, and not just an accidental "oopsie I walked out with some proprietary IP by mistake, better discard it and keep this low key so nobody finds out".

By the looks of it, this guy, most likely a Bluecard(German equivalent of H1B) was just cheating and stealing his way up the career chain through the revolving door of the blue-chip automotive sector, until he got caught.

Companies both big and small, never ever encourage you to bring to work proprietary files and data from your previous workplaces, since that's a guaranteed lawsuit as these things always get out eventually.