Two former Samsung executives have been arrested in South Korea. They are suspected of collaborating with Chinese officials and transferring company secrets worth more than $3.2 billion to China to build a chip factory. This was reported by Bloomberg.

According to a police statement, one of those arrested was identified as 66-year-old Mr. Choi. Among other things, he recruited South Korean chip manufacturing experts and transferred technology about Samsung memory chips through a joint venture.

The two men arrested last year were working with Chinese officials to set up a 20-nanometer DRAM chip manufacturing facility in China. Police said they have already shut down the facility, but continue to investigate the possibility of other technology leaks.

Such activities of former Samsung employees could harm not only the company but also South Korea, which is the world’s leading memory chip manufacturer. The police also noted that the transfer of the company’s secrets to China “weakened the nation’s competitiveness when the countries are in a global chip war.”

In the summer of 2023, a similar case was reported in which one of Samsung’s top executives also transferred the company’s secret data to China in order to recreate a chip manufacturing plant.