Law enforcement officers on Thursday searched five locations in Taipei and New Taipei City, questioned nine people and two executives as part of a probe into alleged talent poaching by a Chinese company.
New Taipei City prosecutors collected evidence at the Taipei office of RogersAI Technology Co (羅傑斯人工智能) and other sites of the firm, which is allegedly covertly owned by China-based cryptocurrency mining company Bitmain Technologies (比特大陸科技).
RogersAI chairman Lin Chen-ting (林承廷) and chief executive officer Luo Shih-chieh (羅士傑) were released on bail.
Photo: Bloomberg
Lin and Luo allegedly sought to recruit Taiwanese engineers with expertise in artificial intelligence, facial recognition technologies, biometric authentication and other fields, prosecutor Hsu Hung-wei (許宏緯) said, adding that the firm spent about NT$150 million (US$5.05 million) on the efforts over the past two years.
RogersAI allegedly targeted talent at local technology firms, such as the research-and-development division of Delta Electronics and the Hon Hai Research Institute, enticing about 50 staff to change employers, Hsu said.
The probe focuses on fund transactions at RogersAI and its ownership structure, Hsu said, adding that the company is allegedly a subsidiary of China-based Fujian KuKe3D Technology Co (福建庫克智能科技), which is owned by Bitmain.
Hsu said RogersAI seems to have been set up solely for talent poaching purposes.
Lin and Luo allegedly hold executive positions at Fujian KuKe3D, he added.
“Illegal talent poaching by Chinese firms poses a serious threat and undermines the development of the local high-tech sector,” Hsu said.
Lin and Luo faced pending charges of contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which requires Chinese firms to seek approval from the Ministry of Economic Affairs before investing in Taiwan.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS