Former Samsung Electronics CEO accused of stealing trade secrets

Samsung logo at headquarters in Seoul, South Korea

According to Yonhap news agency, South Korean authorities have arrested a former CEO of Samsung Electronics on charges of stealing trade secrets from the tech giant to build a copy of a chip factory in China.

The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office announced that the 65-year-old former CEO was charged with violating the law on the protection of production technology and the law on the prevention of unfair competition.

Specifically, he is accused of using stolen technology and data to build a replica of a Samsung Electronics chip factory at a location just 1.5km away from the company's chip factory in Xi'an, western China.

These documents include chip plant basic engineering data (BED) and process design and layout drawings covering the period from August 2018 to 2019.

However, the plan failed when a Taiwanese (Chinese) company canceled its commitment to invest 8,000 billion won (6.2 billion USD) in the project.

Instead, the former CEO is said to have received 460 billion won in investment from Chinese investors and produced test products from a chip factory built on Samsung's technology platform in Chengdu last year.

In addition to the above subject, the prosecution also indicted 6 others, including an employee of a Samsung Electronics subcontractor and 5 employees of a Chinese chip manufacturing company founded by the former CEO, for colluding to leak technology.

Prosecutors added that the former CEO's chip factory in China hired about 200 people from Samsung and SK hynix Inc. Samsung is estimated to have suffered at least 300 billion won in losses due to the technology leak.

According to VNA