A researcher who worked at a defense contractor was given a suspended prison sentence on charges of taking out more than 1,000 key files, including technical drawings and business proposals, by copying them to an external storage device just before resigning.
According to legal sources on the 18th, Incheon District Court Criminal Division 7 single-judge Kim Gi-ho sentenced former defense contractor researcher A, 54, who was indicted on charges of occupational breach of trust, to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years.
In April 2018, A was brought to trial on charges of storing 1,017 of the company's key business asset files on a USB drive and taking them outside during the process of resigning from the defense contractor where A worked.
At the time, A handled production and research duties for projects such as developing weapons systems related to firearm sights. A prosecution investigation found that A saved optical design drawing files and other materials to a USB drive after receiving them from a company adviser, who said they were needed for business cooperation.
It was found that just before resigning, A renamed business proposal files intended for use in defense procurement bidding as "Resume1," "Resume2," and the like, and saved them.
A moved to a competing defense contractor the day after leaving the company.
Judge Kim said, "The defendant's culpability is not light, given the removal of technology-related materials from a defense contractor," but noted, "The court considered that the defendant admitted the crime and reflected on it, that no substantial damage appears to have occurred, and that this was a first offense."