[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Seven people, including Samsung's former executives and employees who stole Samsung Electronics' trade secret and national core technology "Semiconductor Factory Design Data" to China, were arrested and put on trial. They are believed to have helped China replicate its entire semiconductor plant at Samsung Electronics.

The Defense Acquisition Program and Industrial Technology Crime Investigation Department at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office said on the 12th that it has indicted Samsung Electronics executive A (65) on charges of violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act and violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and indicted six accomplices, including B (60), without detention.

A was accused of illegally using Samsung Electronics' "semiconductor plant design data" while establishing a semiconductor manufacturer in China and Singapore with a large investment from China and other countries from August 2018 to 2019.

Mr. A is also accused of illegally using Samsung Electronics' trade secrets and national core technologies such as 'Semiconductor Factory BED' and 'Process Layout'. The blueprint of a semiconductor plant is a trade secret worth up to trillions of won with data obtained from Samsung Electronics through numerous trial and error, R&D, and simulation for more than 30 years.

China tried to build a semiconductor plant, a replica of Samsung Electronics' plant, just 1.5km away from Samsung Electronics' Xi'an semiconductor plant, and A helped it.

A, a former executive of Samsung Electronics, is known as a semiconductor expert who worked for Samsung Electronics for 18 years and also worked as a vice president at SK Hynix.

A received 460 billion won in Chengdu, China, and a Taiwanese company also set up semiconductor plants in two places, China and Singapore, with an investment of about 8 trillion won. In the process, he took out about 200 key semiconductor workers such as Samsung Electronics and recruited them for a high salary.

A instructed employees of the Chinese plant to obtain and use Samsung Electronics' semiconductor design data, and employees actively participated in the crime by obtaining the original design data from Samsung Electronics suppliers and giving them to designers.

The prosecution launched an investigation with intelligence from the National Intelligence Service's Industrial Secrets Protection Center and conducted an investigation as soon as A arrived in South Korea in February and arrested him in May.

The prosecution estimated that the technology leak cost Samsung Electronics at least 300 billion won, and said, "We will define the case as a leak of semiconductor core technologies overseas and strictly respond to industrial technology leaks that threaten the economic security of the affected companies and the country."

Samsung Electronics said, "We are actively cooperating with the prosecution investigation."

 

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