'Traitors of the Industrial Field' 21 Cases of Overseas Technology Leakage Crimes Detected in 9 Months

Special Crackdown Since February This Year

The police have uncovered 21 cases of technology and personnel leakage, referred to as 'betrayal acts' in industrial sites this year. Since technology leakage directly leads to the outflow of national wealth, meticulous prevention and post-measure preparations are required.

On the 14th, the National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters announced the results of the 'Special Crackdown on Economic Security Threat Crimes' conducted over nine months since February.

Through this special crackdown, the police detected and transferred 21 cases of overseas technology leakage. This year, the police deployed all available organizations and personnel, including the Industrial Technology Security Investigation Unit of city and provincial police agencies and security investigation teams at police stations, to conduct a large-scale special crackdown.

Looking at the 21 overseas technology leakage cases by offense type, there were 6 cases (28.6%) violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act and 15 cases (71.4%) violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act. By affected technology, display technology accounted for 8 cases, semiconductors and machinery for 3 cases, and so on.

At the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, six individuals were arrested, including a former foreign national robot development team researcher who leaked trade secrets related to surgical robots for the purpose of applying for foreign government subsidy-supported research projects, and a representative of a partner company who leaked a major corporation's factory automation solution to domestic and foreign companies and attempted to conceal and leak national core technologies such as LCD process recipes abroad. The Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency arrested five individuals, including former executives of a defense company who leaked defense technology and trade secrets obtained from the defense industry, and secured pre-prosecution seizure of assets worth approximately 18 million KRW.

A police agency official stated, "This year, there were achievements such as upgrading the Industrial Technology Security Investigation Unit of city and provincial police agencies, enhancing investigative expertise, and the first issuance of an Interpol Red Notice in the field of technology leakage." He added, "Next year, we plan to focus on detecting overseas leakage of major technologies, including national core technologies, through active participation in the 'Government-wide Joint Response Team for Technology Leakage.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.