'Semiconductor Technology Leak to China': Former Samsung Executive Sentenced to 6 Years and 4 Months in Retrial, Sentence Increased

A former executive of Samsung Electronics, who was put on trial for leaking key semiconductor technologies to a Chinese company, has been sentenced to six years and four months in prison in a retrial after remand.

Yonhap News Agency

On April 23, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 10-1 (Presiding Judges Lee Sangho, Lee Jaeshin, and Lee Hyeran) sentenced Kim, a former department head at Samsung Electronics who was indicted on charges including violation of the Act on the Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology, to six years and four months in prison and imposed a fine of 200 million won. This sentence is harsher than the previous appellate court ruling, which had handed down six years in prison and a 200 million won fine.

The court stated, "The defendant's act of unlawfully acquiring Samsung Electronics' trade secrets and handing them over to a Chinese company squandered the vast time and resources invested in DRAM semiconductor development, seriously disrupted fair market practices, and could negatively affect national competitiveness."

Kim was accused of illegally leaking information on Samsung Electronics’ 18-nanometer DRAM semiconductor manufacturing process, designated as a core national technology, and transferring it to ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a Chinese company. Prosecutors found that when Kim moved to CXMT, he leaked documents related to semiconductor deposition and technology data on seven critical processes, receiving assets worth several tens of billions of won in return.

Meanwhile, Bang, a former employee at a Samsung Electronics partner company who was indicted alongside Kim, was given an additional three-month prison sentence after being found guilty on some charges for which he was previously acquitted at the appellate stage. Bang had already received a confirmed sentence of two years and six months in prison for violating the Act on the Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology and other charges.

The court stated, "The nature of the offense is severe, as the trade secrets were leaked with the knowledge that they would be used overseas. If such acts are punished lightly, it could undermine companies’ motivation for technological innovation."

Bang was convicted of colluding with Kim to provide CXMT with design technical data belonging to a supplier of semiconductor equipment.

Kim and Bang were initially indicted in the first trial for violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act due to the 'use' of trade secrets. However, both the first and second trials acquitted them of the act of 'disclosure,' considering it to be included within 'use.' The Supreme Court, however, ruled that leakage of trade secrets constitutes a separate crime and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court.

The retrial court accepted the Supreme Court’s interpretation and found them guilty of the relevant charges. This case began when the National Intelligence Service detected signs of technology leakage and requested an investigation by the prosecution in May 2023.

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