Company Employees Indicted En Masse for Trying to Leak Samsung’s “National Core Technology” to China

Seven, including the company's former CEO, indicted without detention
Attempted overseas leak of national core LCD technology
Also accused of unauthorized use of factory automation source code

Employees of a company have been indicted for allegedly attempting to leak Samsung Display’s national core technology and Samsung SDS’s factory automation program source code to a Chinese company.

Samsung Electronics' Seocho Building in Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yoon Dongju

The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office said on November 11 that its First Division for Serious Crime Prosecution, headed by Chief Prosecutor Lee Hanul, had indicted without detention the corporate entity of Company A, a factory automation solutions provider, and seven of its employees, including its former CEO and a vice president, on charges including violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

According to the prosecution, employees of Company A were conducting on-site inspections of equipment slated for sale at Samsung Display’s LCD (liquid crystal display) production facility in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, when they allegedly concealed log files stored on the equipment’s computers and attempted to take them off-site. They were indicted after being caught.

The equipment log files they allegedly tried to remove contained process conditions, including temperature, pressure and gas flow rates. These are both national core technologies for manufacturing and processing eighth-generation-class LCD panels and trade secrets. National core technologies are managed under the Act on the Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology because their leakage overseas could seriously harm national security and economic development.

They are also accused of using Samsung SDS’s factory automation program source code without authorization to carry out projects worth tens of billions of won. In November 2011, Company A acquired the program’s economic copyrights and other rights from Samsung Display for KRW 7.4 billion. It later used the program under a resale agreement, but continued to use the source code without authorization even after the agreement was terminated in 2019.

Investigators found that, from June 2019 through March 2026, Company A’s former CEO and others used source code containing Samsung SDS trade secrets without authorization to carry out 33 factory automation projects for overseas companies, worth a total of approximately KRW 32.1 billion.

From April 2020 through December 2023, they also carried out 10 factory automation projects for domestic companies, worth approximately KRW 4.8 billion. They are additionally suspected of providing materials containing core source code to a Chinese display manufacturer.

A prosecution service official said, “If competing companies use these materials, they can reduce the time and cost required to build production facilities, potentially undermining the competitiveness of the companies that developed the technology.” The official added, “We will respond firmly to advanced technology-related crimes, including the infringement and leakage of national core technologies and trade secrets.”

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