The 65-year-old former CEO was charged with violating the law on protection of industrial technology and prevention of unfair competition, according to the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office.
He is accused of trying to build a complete replica of Samsung's semiconductor plant in China after illegally collecting confidential company data, including chip plant basic engineering data (BED), process layouts and design drawings, from August 2018 to 2019.
Prosecutors also indicted but did not detain six others for colluding in the technology leak, including an employee of a Samsung Electronics subcontractor and five employees of a Chinese chipmaker founded by the former executive.
BED is a technology needed to ensure that impurities do not exist in semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Process layout contains information about the floor plan and dimensions of the eight core processes of a chip factory for semiconductor manufacturing. Trade secrets are needed for the production of DRAM below 30 nanometers and NAND flash chips, which are considered national core technologies.
The replica Samsung chip plant was located just 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) from the “original” in Xi’an, according to prosecutors. However, his plan fell through after the Taiwanese company failed to fulfill its commitment to invest 8 trillion won ($6.2 billion).
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 technology in Chengdu last year.
His Chinese chip plant employed about 200 people from Samsung and SK Hynix. He is accused of directing employees to collect and use Samsung's semiconductor design data and other trade secrets. Samsung is estimated to have suffered at least 300 billion won in losses due to technology leaks.
(According to Yonhap)
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