Two ex-Samsung employees who returned to Korea from China earlier this year have been arrested. It is alleged that the individuals went to China several years back and worked for China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), passing on the intellectual property behind Samsung’s 16-nanometer DRAM technologies. KED Global reports that the tech secret leakers earned “several million dollars” for sharing Samsung memory technology secrets with the Chinese.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported this case and two suspects to prosecutors in May, calling for an investigation. The two suspects, a Mr Kim and a Mr Bang, returned to Korea in October. Early last week, prosecutors sought arrests on charges of violating Korea’s Prevention and Protection of Industrial Technology Leakage Act. KED Global reports that the Information Technology Crime Investigation Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office secured evidence to proceed with the court case. Thus, arrest warrants were enacted on Friday, with Mr Kim and Mr Bang taken into custody.
We don’t know a lot about the accused. Mr Kim, who retired in 2016 and subsequently went to CXMT in China, is said to have been a full-time employee at Samsung. The source report says CXMT paid Kim “several million dollars in annual salary,” which seems extraordinary. It is claimed that Kim shared experience and tech concerned with semiconductor deposition technology. The second person arrested, Mr Bang, is simply described as a “former Samsung subcontractor.”
Case prosecutors say the Samsung 16-nanometer DRAM tech leak is worth about 2.3 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in damages. Moreover, it could have significantly narrowed the technology gap between Chinese DRAM maker CXMT and Samsung - years of research and development.
The initial investigations by the NIS and prosecutors seem to center on semiconductor deposition technology. However, further investigations are already being lined up to cover seven further Samsung semiconductor fabrication processes that may have been leaked to CXMT.
The latest industry figures suggest that Samsung controls about 40% of the DRAM market. Significant technological leaks like those discussed above will be a major concern for the company seeking to maintain its memory industry hegemony.
KED Global reports that leaks like this are accelerating, citing a claim from Korea’s NIS that chip technology leaks have risen fourfold in the last five years. Therefore, some are calling for harsher penalties.
A CXMT statement about the matter received by Reuters asserted that the company “respects intellectual property rights and has a robust mechanism to prevent the inflow of third-party information from its employees.” CXMT declined to provide specific comments regarding the Samsung memory IP theft story.
