The Supreme Court yesterday rejected the appeals of two former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) employees convicted in a trade secrets leak case, making their sentences final.
Former TSMC engineer Chen Li-ming (陳力銘) is to serve 10 years in prison after the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court found him guilty of contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), and other offenses related to the unauthorized acquisition and use of Taiwan’s “national core key technologies.”
Ex-TSMC employee Chen Wei-chieh (陳韋傑) received a six-year prison sentence.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The case involved trade secrets related to TSMC’s 2-nanometer and 14-nanometer manufacturing processes, and marked the first corporate indictment under the National Security Act involving the leakage of Taiwan’s national core key technologies.
Two former TSMC engineers in the case, Wu Ping-chun (吳秉駿) and Ko Yi-ping (戈一平), received prison terms of three years and two years respectively.
Neither appealed, making their convictions final.
Tokyo Electron Taiwan, the company that received the leaks, was given a suspended sentence of three years and ordered to pay NT$100 million (US$3.08 million) to TSMC and NT$50 million to the national treasury, the ruling showed.
Another defendant, Tokyo Electron employee Lu Yi-yin (盧怡尹), received a 10-month suspended prison sentence and a NT$1 million fine for destroying evidence in a criminal case.
She is appealing her case to the Supreme Court.
Chen Li-ming joined Tokyo Electron, a major TSMC supplier, after leaving the chipmaker, prosecutors said.
From 2023 to last year, he repeatedly solicited confidential technical information from TSMC employees to help Tokyo Electron secure additional equipment orders for TSMC’s advanced process technologies.
Tokyo Electron was indicted for failing to supervise Chen Li-ming.
Investigators found that the company’s cloud storage still contained TSMC trade secret materials.
After the indictments were announced last year, Tokyo Electron said it had found no evidence that TSMC’s 2-nanometer technology had been leaked to third parties.
The company also said it does not tolerate contraventions of the law or ethical standards.
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