The Taipei District Court yesterday convicted former HTC Corp vice president of product design Thomas Chien (簡志霖) of stealing proprietary technology to sell to China and other charges, and sentenced him to more than eight years in prison.
The judges ruled that Chien had contravened the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法) and Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), but found him not guilty of money laundering.
He was given an eight-year-and-one-month term.
The money he reportedly made from the thefts, estimated at about NT$6.83 million (US$221,279 at the current exchange rate), was ordered confiscated.
It was the first ruling on the case, so Chien can appeal the verdict.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office launched an investigation in late August 2013 after HTC filed charges against Chien and other executives.
The investigation found that during the time Chien headed HTC’s product design department in Taiwan, he was being bribed to steal HTC’s icon interface design and other proprietary cellphone technology to pass to connections in China.
He was allegedly helping the Chengdu City Government and other municipal governments interested in establishing mobile phone design companies.
Investigators said Chien colluded with five other HTC employees to leak trade secrets.
He took the not-yet public HTC mobile phone interface design to China in June 2013, where he made presentations to Chinese businesses in Beijing, investigators said.
He and his wife also formed a company in Taiwan to recruit HTC designers and engineers to work for the planned firms in China, the investigation found.
Chien and the five others — Wu Chien-hung (吳建宏), a HTC product design section head; Justin Huang (黃國清), senior manager of design and innovation; Huang Hung-yi (黃弘毅), senior manager of design and innovation; Hung Chung-yi (洪琮鎰), manufacturing design department manager; and Chen Shih-tsou (陳枻佐), a low-level employee — were indicted on Dec. 27, 2013, on charges of leaking trade secrets to Chinese businesses and breach of trust.
All except Hung Chung-yi had confessed to breaking the law and the courts should be lenient with them, prosecutors said when they filed their indictment.
Three of HTC’s Taiwanese suppliers were indicted at the same time for helping Chien and the others submit fraudulent expense claims and providing kickbacks.
Prosecutors said Chien, Wu and Justin Huang used forged receipts to submit fraudulent bills and received a total of NT$33.56 million in kickbacks from suppliers.
Taipei prosecutors waited until the Taipei stock market closed on Aug. 30, 2013, to raid Chien’s HTC office and his residence, and found NT$3 million in cash in the home, which they suspected came from kickbacks.
After Chien was place in detention on Aug. 31, investigators searched his Audi sports car and found NT$7.8 million in cash hidden in the vehicle.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS