A panoramic view of the Pyeongtaek Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office. /News 1
Former researchers and others suspected of stealing technology from domestic companies producing semiconductor processing equipment and leaking it to China were detained and sent to trial.
It was discovered that they even tried to set up a ‘cloning factory’ in China, but stopped their crimes when the prosecution started their investigation.
On the 16th, the Pyeongtaek Branch Criminal Division of Suwon District 3 Prosecutor’s Office (Chief Ji-yeon Lee) arrested two people, including Mr. C, a former investigator at Company A, a company specializing in vacuum pumps for semiconductor processing , and the CEO of Company B, for violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act, leaking foreign trade secrets, and theft, arrested and charged on charges of In addition, eight people, including Company B employees and former employees Company A, who conspired with them to commit the crime, charged them without detaining them.
According to the prosecution, Mr C and others are suspected of leaking Company A’s trade secret and advanced technology for manufacturing vacuum pumps for semiconductor processing to China. This equipment creates a vacuum condition, which is the core environment of the semiconductor manufacturing, solar power, and display processes, and is used primarily to remove contaminants. This is also a technology that has been confirmed as cutting edge technology by the Minister for Trade, Industry and Energy.
Mr. C is a former researcher who worked at Company A for over 20 years and was involved in the development of vacuum pump products. He was found to have illegally acquired technical information, including the factory layout, from current and former employees of Company A between March and May 2023. He was also found to have stolen approximately 10,000 vacuum pump parts owned by Company A, with a market value of 160 million won.
When Mr. left C the company in 2023, leaked technical data through methods such as not returning design drawings related to a vacuum pump. It was found that Mr. C set up Company B and sent the information he stole from Company A via e-mail to employees of Company D in China to be used to develop clones.
Overview of the crime of ‘vacuum pump for semiconductor processing’ manufacturing technology leaking from China./Pyeongtaek Branch Suwon District Prosecutors Office
He was found to have signed a contract with Chinese company D to mass produce replicas and transfer related technology to a Chinese company. After receiving a complaint from Company A, the prosecution began an investigation and seized Company A’s vacuum pump parts which were stored in Company B’s warehouse for export to China. In addition, laptops and external hard drives hidden by the defendants were seized and leaked technical data was recovered.
It was found that the defendants had planned to set up a vacuum pump replica factory in China, but when the prosecution’s investigation began, they stopped the crime and sent the workers back to Korea.
The prosecution official said, “If semiconductor equipment factories are copied and mass-produced in China, the damage will not only be limited to companies, but there is a risk of irreparable damage to the domestic semiconductor ecosystem. ” “The nature of the crime is very bad, and the damage suffered by the country and the victim company is also a very serious crime,” he said.
Meanwhile, Company A is a specialized company with the nation’s No. 1 technology related to vacuum pumps for semiconductor processes, and exports more than 200 billion won equipment to China annually, with annual sales of reached 472.9 billion won.
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