Ex-Nanya engineer indicted for illegally obtaining confidential data

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) The New Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on Monday indicted a former senior engineer at Nanya Technology Corp. for secretly filming confidential company information in an alleged effort to secure a high-paying job in China, the office said Thursday.

The man, surnamed Yeh (葉), was indicted on charges of violating the Trade Secrets Act by illegally obtaining and copying trade secrets for the purpose of using them in China, as well as breach of trust.

However, as prosecutors found no evidence that Yeh had disclosed or provided the trade secrets to others, he was not charged with illegally disclosing trade secrets.

Prosecutors said Yeh contacted Chinese headhunters on WeChat between 2025 and 2026 to inquire about high-paying positions without his employer's knowledge.

After submitting his resignation in February, Yeh allegedly entered restricted areas of Nanya's offices three times between March and April, either on days off or in the early morning. He hid an action camera inside a pile of snacks to evade security checks, prosecutors said.

During the visits, he allegedly logged into the company's virtual hosting system, downloaded a large number of documents related to core manufacturing processes and filmed the documents with the camera. He allegedly illegally obtained 32 image files containing trade secrets and did not delete the downloaded documents before leaving the company on April 15, prosecutors said.

The case came to light after Nanya's information security specialists detected anomalies by comparing the locations of wireless equipment with employee access-control records and activity logs from company-issued computers.

The Investigation Bureau's New Taipei City Division raided Yeh's residence on June 15 and seized relevant evidence, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, Yeh was a senior engineer in Nanya's advanced process development division. When he joined the company in 2022, he signed documents agreeing not to film or download confidential information without authorization, as the company's process technology is considered to have significant economic value.