Samsung Executive Charged for Planning Copycat Chip Factory in China

A former Samsung executive has been indicted by South Korean prosecutors for allegedly stealing engineering data from the company's semiconductor factory and using it to build a copycat plant in China. The defendant, who has not been identified, is accused of violating fair competition rules and the Industrial Technology Protection Act. Six accomplices have also been prosecuted. If successful, the plan would have caused "irreparable damage" to South Korea's semiconductor industry. The attempt to build the new plant using Samsung data between 2018 and 2019 ended in failure due to funding issues.