[Exclusive] Stole Technology via WeChat One Month Before Resignation and Changed Jobs

Indictment Obtained for Camera Module Technology Leak by Lee
Excel File Shared with Vice President and Technical Team Leader of Chinese Companies
Korean Company Suffering Losses Over 100 Billion Won Undergoing Rehabilitation Procedures

Lee, who was indicted on charges of stealing camera module inspection equipment technology that was supplied to Samsung and Apple and handing it over to a Chinese company, was found by the prosecution's investigation to have directly sent the parts list via WeChat to an executive of an overseas company while still employed. The vice presidents and technical team leaders of two Chinese companies, A and B, received the Excel file, and Lee later moved to become the head of the Korean branch of company A. This case was uncovered by the National Intelligence Service in January 2023 and referred to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.

According to the indictment submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the office of Representative Joo Jin-woo of the People Power Party, Lee resigned from a domestic small and medium-sized camera module company on June 30, 2022, and immediately joined company A on July 1. About a month before his resignation, on May 11, he received the parts list file of the grabber (a component that converts digital signals received from the image sensor into digital video signals), which was a trade secret of the company he worked for, via KakaoTalk from an employee.

The indictment states that Lee told the employee, "I am moving to a Chinese company and need the parts list necessary for developing the grabber. I want to send it to China to check if there are parts that can be procured there." The prosecution believes that Lee renamed the file from ‘TEST_TOTAL.xlsx’ to ‘Part List.xlsx’ and sent it via WeChat to the vice president of Chinese company B. A month later, on June 11, he also sent the same file to the technical team leader of another Chinese company A.

According to the prosecution, around June to July 2022, Lee himself was in charge of communication with clients and overall management of the domestic sales office of Chinese company A, while three other employees were assigned to oversee the preparation of design drawings and proposals. The prosecution stated, "Lee conspired sequentially to use the design drawings and proposals of the equipment secretly taken from the company to prepare design drawings and proposals for the equipment of Chinese company A." The indictment also noted, "(The company) designed and manufactured the grabber, which is a technology uniquely held worldwide only by this company, and has been confirmed as ‘advanced technology’ by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy. It is a highly technology-intensive and economically impactful technology."

The Information Technology Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (led by Chief Prosecutor Andong-geon) arrested and indicted Lee and one other person on charges of violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act, Unfair Competition Prevention Act (including unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets overseas), and breach of trust on the 15th of last month. Seven colleagues who moved to company A with Lee were indicted without detention. Employees of the company who were indicted on similar charges between December 2023 and January 2024 received suspended prison sentences in the first trial and are currently undergoing appeal trials. The company Lee worked for has ceased collaboration with Apple and is undergoing rehabilitation procedures after suffering estimated losses exceeding 100 billion won.