Arrest warrant issued for ex-Samsung official over chip tech leak
The Hindu
An arrest warrant was issued for an ex-Samsung official accused of giving semiconductor technology info to a Chinese company.
An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Samsung Electronics official accused of giving semiconductor technology information to a Chinese chipmaker, as Seoul cracks down on industrial espionage.
A judge issued the warrant on Friday, the Seoul Central District Court said in a statement on Saturday morning. Prosecutors had sought the warrant on Wednesday on suspicion the unidentified official gave information related to 18-nano DRAM memory chip technology to China's Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT).
Prosecutors said the damage caused by the technology leak could be about 2.3 trillion won ($1.8 billion), the Korea Economic Daily newspaper reported, adding that the case also involves dozens of others from Samsung Electronics' suppliers.
Samsung, the world's top memory chipmaker, said it had no comment.
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Hefei-based CXMT declined to comment on the matter specifically but said in a statement it respects intellectual property rights and has a robust mechanism to prevent the inflow of third-party information from its employees.
Owned by state-backed parent Innotron Memory, CXMT is China's leading maker of DRAM memory chips.
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