Former Samsung CEO arrested on suspicion of copying Samsung factory

A 65-year-old former Samsung executive has been arrested in South Korea on suspicion of stealing the design and technology of a Samsung chip factory in China. The man would have wanted to build a copy of the factory a mile away.

It would concern a Samsung factory in the Chinese town of Xi’an. The Samsung CEO is said to have stolen ‘technology and data’ from Samsung worth 216 million euros and planned to build a copy of the factory with an investment of 5.8 billion euros from a Taiwanese company. When that company failed to deliver on its promise, he turned to Chinese investors. They gave him 332 million euros to get started and it is said that the money was used to build the factory’s research & development department and even produce prototypes.

The man referred to as ‘Mr. A.’, is said to have worked for Samsung for eighteen years, but also for SK Hynix. The man employed two hundred employees, mainly from Samsung and SK Hynix in China. Besides Mr. A. six others were arrested on suspicion of complicity. Writing all that Yonhap, Business Korea and Bloomberg.