A former Samsung Electronics employee convicted of leaking semiconductor process technology while moving to Chinese chipmaker CXMT, or ChangXin Memory Technologies, had the sentence reduced on appeal.
The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 3, presided over by Chief Judge Lee Seung-han, on the 22nd overturned the lower court's seven-year prison term and sentenced the defendant, identified only by the surname Jeon, to five years. Jeon had been indicted on charges including violating the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology, specifically the overseas leakage of national core technology.
Jeon was indicted in May last year on charges of leaking Samsung Electronics' DRAM semiconductor process technology to the Chinese company while moving to CXMT together with Kim, a former Samsung Electronics department head.
In April, the lower court handed down the seven-year term, finding that the leaked technology qualified as national core technology and that Jeon had conspired in the leak.
The appeals court noted that Jeon's offense caused irrecoverable damage to Samsung Electronics and posed a threat to the country's industrial competitiveness.
The court, however, cited as grounds for leniency that Jeon was not directly involved in development work and had appeared as a witness to testify in other trials related to the case. The court judged that Jeon's testimony was helping establish the substantive truth in the trials of those involved. It also reduced the sentence from the lower court's term in consideration of Jeon's admission of the charges during the appeal and expression of remorse.
During the appeal, Jeon argued that it would be difficult for a developer from Samsung Electronics to reproduce PRP, a core recipe for semiconductor manufacturing, from memory alone. Jeon also admitted to having prepared for investigations by prosecutors and the National Intelligence Service while working at CXMT.
Kim, who was indicted on charges of leaking technical materials related to core processes while moving to CXMT in 2016, was sentenced to six years and four months in a retrial following a remand.