South Korean prosecutors stated they indicted a former Samsung Electronics government on Monday on suspicion of stealing the corporate’s know-how to construct a chip manufacturing unit in China.
The defendant, who additionally previously labored at SK Hynix as a vp, is accused of illegally buying Samsung information to construct a manufacturing unit within the Chinese language metropolis of Xian between 2018 and 2019, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Workplace stated in a press release.
The trial date was but to be confirmed by the native courtroom the place the indictment has been filed.
The defendant, arrested final month, is denying the allegations, a prosecutor stated.
He labored a mixed 28 years on the South Korean chipmakers, prosecutors stated. The officers didn’t determine the accused.
Reuters was not instantly in a position to attain him for remark.
The previous Samsung government allegedly tried to construct the manufacturing unit 1.5 km (1 mile) away from Samsung’s chip manufacturing facility in Xian after establishing a semiconductor firm, prosecutors stated.
The try and construct the brand new plant utilizing Samsung information, nevertheless, resulted in failure on account of funding points, a prosecutor stated.
Prosecutors stated they’ve additionally indicted six different folks for his or her involvement within the alleged crime, together with an inspection firm worker who’s accused of leaking the architectural plan of Samsung’s semiconductor manufacturing unit.
Prosecutors stated they estimated the theft of the info to have inflicted at the least KRW 300 billion ($233 million or roughly Rs. 1,920 crore) price of losses on Samsung Electronics.
“It is a grave crime that would deal a heavy blow to our financial safety by shaking the muse of the home chip trade at a time of intensifying competitors in chip manufacturing,” the prosecutors’ workplace stated.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix declined to remark.
The indictment comes as South Korea has vowed to step up help for its chip sector.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has described competitors within the trade as an “all-out conflict” amid heightened Sino-U.S. tensions.
South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix, the world’s high two makers of reminiscence chips, have invested billions of {dollars} in chip factories in China.
($1 = 1,287.7700 gained) (This story has been corrected to alter the estimated quantity of losses to 300 billion gained from 30 billion gained in paragraph 10)
© Thomson Reuters 2023