A former employee who leaked core technology—developed by a domestic semiconductor company over 10 years with an investment of more than 30 billion won—to a Chinese competitor has been sentenced to 2 years and 4 months in prison.

While cutting-edge technologies leaking overseas are increasing year by year, critics point out that actual court sentences remain lenient.

Established in 1976, the domestic company Fecotec produces "capillaries," which are components used in semiconductor assembly.

Capillaries are parts used to connect metal wires one-fifth the thickness of a human hair to semiconductor chips, and they are also used in HBM production.

Fecotec invested over 30 billion won over 10 years to develop the related technology and currently holds a market share of more than 70% in the global capillary market.

However, an individual surnamed Kim, who worked at the company for 17 years, was put on trial on charges of taking a USB containing capillary-related process information out of the company when moving to a Chinese competitor last year.

Kim was an employee who had been dispatched to a Chinese factory to oversee component production.

It was revealed that even after confirming the move to the Chinese company, Kim received related materials from former colleagues, including defective product reports, comparative analyses with competitor products, and production status updates.

The first-instance court sentenced Kim to 2 years and 6 months in prison last November, but the sentence was reduced to 2 years and 4 months in prison in May during the appeals trial.

The reduction was decided in consideration of factors such as the fact that some of the leaked materials were documents that regular company employees could view and print.

Overseas leakage cases of cutting-edge technology have been growing rapidly in recent years.

Cases of overseas technology leakage sent by the police to prosecutors increased from 9 cases in 2021 to 33 cases last year.

Among the 103 cases uncovered over the past 5 years, attempts to leak technology to China accounted for 66 cases, or 64%.

By sector, displays accounted for 28 cases and semiconductors for 18 cases.

The National Intelligence Service estimated the damages from cutting-edge technology leakage crimes that occurred from 2020 to 2024 to be approximately 23 trillion won.

As technology leakage crimes continue one after another, the Supreme Court Sentencing Commission established sentencing guidelines in 2024 to raise the recommended sentence for crimes leaking national core technologies overseas to up to 18 years in prison; however, it is known that many actual cases still result in soft-touch punishments.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Lee Eui-sun | Graphics by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News