South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo reported that a written statement it obtained describes alleged pressure on a Korean team inside ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, in 2016. According to the statement, Jeon, a former Samsung Electronics department head who later oversaw equipment investment at CXMT, said former CXMT CEO Wang Ningguo convened Jeon and other Korean team members between October and December 2016 and told them to bring back Samsung Electronics process recipe plan, or PRP, materials and equipment information.
Jeon said Wang told the group that if they did not bring the material back, he would report them to the South Korean government. He also warned that he had contacts who could verify the facts and that they should not lie. Jeon said he felt afraid at the time. The report added that CXMT management used “Huangshan” as a code name for Samsung Electronics.
The statement was tied to a case involving Samsung’s 18 nm DRAM process
JoongAng Ilbo said Jeon joined CXMT after working at Samsung Electronics for 28 years. He was later indicted on allegations that he disclosed and used, without authorization, Samsung’s 18 nm DRAM process, which the report described as a technology Samsung developed first globally at the time with an investment of KRW 1.6 trillion.
In April this year, Jeon was sentenced to seven years in prison in the first trial. The case is now in the second-instance appeal process.
The report said the PRP includes the sequence, equipment, condition values, and equipment vendors and models for roughly 600 steps in DRAM manufacturing.
It also said Park, a former Samsung process design engineer, copied the related content by hand into 12 pages of notes and took them out in September 2016. Park is currently subject to an Interpol red notice.
Court testimony also mentioned investment discussions
Jeon said in court that during communications with the Chinese side, there had been remarks that if 18 nm could not be completed, no investment would be provided to CXMT. He also said he later learned that the other side had wanted the technology from the beginning and that CXMT initially had no plan to develop it on its own. The reported pressure took place before meetings were prepared for an investment application.
The report added that CXMT was established in 2016 with RMB 14.4 billion in funding from Hefei Industry Investment, an investment arm under the Hefei municipal government. It said the company had not turned a profit for about 10 years and posted its first annual profit last year, with net profit reaching RMB 7.1 billion.