A 36-year-old Chinese national and former employee of SK hynix has been found guilty of stealing trade secrets from the company to benefit Huawei. The ex-employee, who will not be named due to confidentiality concerns, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined approximately $15,000.
According to court documents, the employee printed around 4,000 pages of technical documents from SK hynix’s Shanghai office, which contained sensitive information that would have given Huawei an edge in the semiconductor industry. The documents were obtained just before her resignation and were concealed in bags and stored in her backpack.
The employee initially claimed that she needed the documents for study purposes, but the court rejected this claim after discovering evidence of her subsequent employment at Huawei. Authorities believe that the stolen information was shared with Huawei, which had offered high salaries to TSMC engineers to lure them away from competitors.
Despite the seriousness of the crime, the sentence took into account that there was no clear evidence that the stolen documents were actually used by Huawei and that SK hynix did not seek damages. The company has strict security measures in place, including prohibiting the use of flash drives or other portable storage mediums to prevent trade secret theft.
Source: https://wccftech.com/ex-sk-hynix-employee-sentenced-to-18-months-prison-for-stealing-trade-secrets-for-huawei