[Exclusive] Former Samsung Employee Disguised $1 Million Received for Leaking Patents as Child’s Tuition and Deposit Refunds

Former Samsung Employee Received $1 Million for Leaking Patent Secrets
Disguised as Tuition and Deposit Refunds
Forged Foreign Currency Documents During Internal Audit
Charged with Breach of Trust and Leaking Trade Secrets
Additionally

A flag is fluttering at the Samsung Seocho Building in Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

According to a prosecution investigation, a former senior engineer at Samsung Electronics IP Center leaked patent secrets, received a large sum of money in return, and then disguised the funds as tuition fees and deposit refunds for his children studying abroad to conceal the transaction.

On March 19, according to the indictment obtained by The Asia Business Daily from the Information Technology Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (headed by Chief Prosecutor Park Kyungtaek), the case was uncovered after an anonymous tip led Samsung Electronics' Management Diagnosis Team to launch an internal audit.

During the internal audit process on April 4 last year, Mr. A was asked to submit his foreign currency account transaction records. The investigation found that in order to conceal the origin of the 1 million dollars he received as payment for leaking patent secrets, he attempted to make it appear as if the funds were for his child's university tuition in France and for a rental deposit refund, thereby disguising the money flow as legitimate.

Three days later, on April 7, Mr. A forged and submitted a "Foreign Currency Deposit Certificate" to support his claims. The document listed the currency as euros and the amount as 258,683.44 euros (approximately 346.69 million won), applying an exchange rate of 1,340.23 won per euro.

In addition, the period was stated as "January 1, 2020 to February 28, 2022," but the date field showed "January 5, 2022." The confirmation section bore the seal of Mr. A's spouse, and it was found that Mr. A personally submitted the forged document in the audit team's conference room.

In the indictment, prosecutors stated that Mr. A submitted a forged foreign currency deposit certificate to hide the fact that he received illicit funds and intended to make it appear as though the money was for his child's tuition at a university in France and a rental deposit refund.

Accordingly, on February 2, prosecutors indicted Mr. A and detained him on charges of breach of trust and leaking trade secrets. On March 9, he was additionally indicted without detention on charges of forging private documents and using forged documents.

Meanwhile, at the first trial on March 6 (presided over by Chief Judge Lee Jaewook), Mr. A denied part of the charges. Mr. A's defense stated, "Some of the alleged acts were work-related communications, and since the materials sent were for technical analysis, they do not constitute a leak of trade secrets."

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