Former employees of LG Display who handed over mass-production technology for large OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels to a Chinese competitor were sentenced to prison terms at the first trial.
According to legal sources on the 26th, the Criminal Agreement Division 34 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Han Sung-jin) sentenced a person surnamed Yoon and a person surnamed Han, who were indicted on charges of violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act, to five years in prison and a fine of 40 million won, and two years in prison and a fine of 10 million won, respectively. A person surnamed Park, who was indicted alongside them, was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years.
Yoon and Han joined LG Display in 1996 and 2000, respectively, and worked there before moving to a Chinese company in 2021.
In Oct. 2020, while still at LG Display, Yoon was brought to trial on charges of conspiring with Han to photograph with a smartphone and leak state core technology, including design drawings of LG Display's Guangzhou, China, plant.
Yoon was found to have carried out the crime to use it after moving to a Chinese company that is a competitor.
After changing jobs, Yoon was found to have asked Han to leak trade secrets obtained through Park. Han, who conspired in the crime, was found to have even attempted to destroy evidence during the investigation.
The court found that Yoon used the materials and information obtained in this way for work at the Chinese company.
The materials and information they leaked included content that could reduce defect rates in the OLED panel manufacturing process or measure unit production costs.
The court found all the charges proven.
The court noted, "The defendants' crimes are serious offenses that could adversely affect national competitiveness," adding, "They not only render the company's effort and expense invested in technology research and development futile, but also seriously undermine fair competition and the order of transactions in the related field."
It continued, "It is hard to see the damage to the victimized company as minor, and given the circumstances and methods of the crime, the degree of conspiracy and participation, and the duration of the offenses, the nature of the crime is grave," adding, "There is a need for stern punishment from the perspective of national economic security."
In particular, for defendants Yoon and Han, the court weighed against them that, as employees with more than 20 years of service, they took advantage of easy access to trade secrets to betray the relationship of trust while still employed and leak information, and that the scope of the leaked technical information was considerable.
However, the court took into account in their favor that they admitted part of the crimes.
Regarding Park, the court said it considered that, compared with the other two defendants, the leaked materials did not constitute state core technology, that Park did not appear to have obtained direct benefits from the disclosure, and that Park fully confessed to the crimes.