US Charges Chinese Jinhua, Taiwanese UMC and Individuals With Economic Espionage

The Department of Justice has charged today a state-owned Chinese enterprise, a Taiwanese semiconductor company, and three Taiwanese individuals for supposedly conspiring to steal trade secrets from Idaho-based semiconductor company Micron Technology, Inc. (Micron).

As detailed in the indictment, Micron is "worth an estimated $100 billion and has a 20 to 25 percent share of the dynamic random access memory industry—a technology not possessed by the Chinese until very recently."

The charged parties in the multi-defendant indictment (.PDF) are "United Microelectronics Corporation (“UMC”), a Taiwan semiconductor foundry; Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, Co., Ltd. (“Jinhua'”), a state-owned enterprise of the PRC; and three Taiwan nationals: Chen Zhengkun, a.k.a. Stephen Chen, age 55; He Jianting, a.k.a. J.T. Ho, age 42; and Wang Yungming, a.k.a. Kenny Wang, age 44."