Ex-Samsung exec charged with stealing trade secrets to create copycat chip factory in China

By KIM TONG-HYUNG
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean prosecutors have arrested and indicted a former executive of Samsung Electronics suspected of stealing trade secrets while attempting to establish a copycat computer chip plant in China. The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said the unnamed 65-year-old unlawfully obtained Samsung factory blueprints and clean-room designs from 2018 and 2019 while trying, unsuccessfully, to replicate them at his own factory in the Chinese city of Xi’an, near where Samsung operates a plant. Prosecutors say the technology allegedly stolen would have been worth at least 300 billion won ($233 million) for Samsung. Six other people have been charged in the case.