TECH NEWS – He sold secrets for money, and now prison is the price. This is a textbook, and frankly pathetic, case of industrial espionage.
The idea that Chinese memory maker CXMT built a significant part of its DRAM success on intellectual property taken from Samsung and other major suppliers looks more credible with every new corporate espionage case that surfaces. In the latest criminal case, a former Samsung employee has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of leaking core DRAM know-how to CXMT in exchange for $2 million.
A Seoul court sentenced former Samsung engineer Jeon Mo to seven years behind bars for violating South Korea’s industrial technology protection law. According to the court, Jeon Mo stole fundamental DRAM-related intellectual property from Samsung and passed it on to CXMT. Reports say he received a total of 2.9 billion won from CXMT over six years for his espionage activity, including a 300 million won contract incentive and 300 million won in stock options. Back in February 2025, Jeon Mo’s accomplice Kim Mo, who had previously held a management role at Samsung Electronics, was also sentenced to seven years in prison for leaking 18-nanometer DRAM technology to CXMT.
In recent months, several former Samsung executives and employees have been accused of leaking critical technology information to the Chinese company CXMT. Prosecutors found that one ex-Samsung employee leaked information covering hundreds of manufacturing steps, then corrected and verified that material as well, a process that ultimately led to China’s first successfully mass-produced DRAM in 2023. The investigation also concluded that CXMT used a front company to recruit and hire former Samsung staff.
Put simply, this was outright industrial espionage. It ended badly for the people who ended up in prison, but CXMT still managed to obtain the fruits of Samsung’s work, which means China gained access to important technology through unauthorized means. And the most uncomfortable question is how many more cases like this may still be buried, because it is entirely possible that this is only one drop in a much larger ocean.
Leave a Reply