Ex-Samsung engineer handed 6-year jail sentence in South Korea over China leak

A South Korean court sentenced a former Samsung Electronics engineer to more than six years in prison for leaking sensitive technology to a leading Chinese chipmaker, highlighting Seoul’s determination to protect the country’s trade secrets.

The sentence delivered by the South Korean High Court on April 23 was harsher than a term previously handed out by a lower court. The High Court also fined the defendant 200 million won (S$172,000), saying in its ruling that “the infringement of proprietary and core national technologies is a grave crime”.

China’s leading chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is trying to break into the global artificial intelligence memory market, which is dominated by Samsung, its home-grown rival SK Hynix and Micron Technology. The trio work closely with Nvidia to produce the world’s most advanced AI accelerators.

CXMT, considered China’s best contender to challenge South Korean and American companies, has come under renewed scrutiny following the April 23 ruling. CXMT did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The ruling followed a February decision by the Supreme Court that significantly expanded criminal liabilities in industrial espionage cases to help maintain South Korea’s competitiveness in semiconductors, now widely seen as strategic goods in the AI era. 

The case was one of several in South Korea in recent years that cast a spotlight on intellectual property theft in the semiconductor industry. In 2023, South Korean prosecutors accused another former Samsung executive of stealing blueprints and designs to try to replicate an entire semiconductor plant in China. The defendant denied the allegations.

The latest case centred on a former Samsung employee, identified only by his surname Kim, and several staff at the conglomerate’s suppliers. They have been accused of stealing proprietary 18-nanometre dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, process data and equipment designs from Samsung and its suppliers.

To make high-bandwidth memory chips, a chipmaker first needs to have the capabilities to make advanced DRAMs and stack those together to build AI memory. 

Prosecutors previously sought a 20-year term during this round of retrial, arguing that the stolen data was instrumental in propelling China’s chip development.

The legal battle has seen several twists and turns: Kim was initially sentenced to seven years and a 200 million won fine in February 2025. That term was reduced to six years on appeal before the Supreme Court intervened to order a retrial. Kim and prosecutors can still appeal against the decision. BLOOMBERG