A court in Suwon, South Korea’s most populous province, has sentenced a senior ex-Samsung engineer to a little more than half a decade in prison for leaking around 340 million won worth of OLED technology to China. This figure converts to approximately $24.5 million, making it a decent chunk of change that was sold to a competitor that would greatly benefit from the cutting-edge display technology mass produced by the world’s largest OLED panel maker.
The former Samsung engineer violated the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act and was found to have sold to Chinese firms between 2018 and 2020
The ex-researcher had been on trial, as reported by Korea Joongang Daily, but was out on bail, as his arrest period had expired in March. Following the expiration, he was once more taken into custody and sentenced on Thursday. Judge Ha Sang-je stated below that strict punishment should be given to individuals who attempt to steal a country’s advanced technology.
“The accused party has wrongly used technology that the company has invested large amounts of money over long periods of time to develop, which is highly condemnable. je said of his ruling. Strict punishment is required to protect the country’s advanced technology. There have been no circumstances relayed that have been reasonable enough to take into consideration to suspend the accused party’s sentence.”
The employee was indicted in October last year on charges of illegally obtaining optical systems for excimer laser annealing technology or ELA. For those who do not know, this technology is employed in the production of Samsung’s OLED panels and OCR inkjet printers. After resigning from his position, the ex-engineer founded a display company, with its base of operations established in South Korea and China, with the intention of smuggling OLED technology from their firm and selling it to the competition.
In addition to the former employee, five people who colluded with the accused were indicted in August 2020. Three of the five belonged to Samsung and were sentenced to between two and three years, while the remaining two were handed suspension sentences.
News Source: Korea Joongang Daily
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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