Executives from Mujin Electronics, a partner company of SK hynix, received a one year and six month prison sentence from the Supreme Court for allegedly leaking semiconductor manufacturing technology of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to a Chinese company.
On the 12th, the Supreme Court's 1st Division (Chief Justice Shin Suk-hee) upheld the 2nd trial's sentence of one year and six months in prison for Vice President A, Director B, and Sales Group Head C of Mujin Electronics, who were charged with violating the law on the prevention and protection of leakage of industrial technology. B and C also received fines of 50 million won each. A fine of 1 billion won was imposed on the corporation Mujin Electronics.
They were indicted for leaking national core technologies related to semiconductors that they learned while working at SK hynix’s partner company from August 2018 to June 2020. The leaked technology is reported to include High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) semiconductor manufacturing technology. HKMG is a next-generation semiconductor manufacturing technology that increases the speed of DRAM while reducing power consumption.
A is also facing allegations of leaking technology from Semes, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics that manufactures semiconductor cleaning equipment. A is under investigation for developing equipment for export to China by utilizing advanced semiconductor technologies and trade secrets, including blueprints for supercritical cleaning equipment secretly obtained through former employees of Semes.
The first trial sentenced A to one year in prison, while B and C each received one year and six months in prison with a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 30 million won. Mujin Electronics was also fined 400 million won. The second trial overturned some of the charges of technology leakage that the first trial found not guilty, imposing heavier sentences.
The Supreme Court agreed with the second trial's judgment.