Six HTC employees, including Thomas Chien, former vice president for product design at HTC have been accused and charged for leaking company trade secrets, accepting kickbacks of $1.1 million and creating false expense reports.
The accusations have been made by The Taipei District Prosecutors Office. According to a Wall Street Journal report , the accused leaked the design for an upcoming HTC smartphone interface to unauthorized suppliers. The employees reportedly planned to use the un-launched design to start their own smartphone company in China and Taiwan. The external suppliers are yet to be identified.
Taipei Times revealed the identities of the five accused employees to be HTC research and development director Wu Chien-hung, HTC senior manager of design and innovation Huang Kuo-ching, senior manager of design and innovation Huang Hung-yi, manufacturing design department manager Hung Chung-yi, and employee Chen Shih-tsou.
"The company expects employees to observe and practice the highest levels of integrity and ethics," Taipei Times quoted HTC as saying in a statement. "Protecting the company's proprietary and intellectual properties, privacy and security is a core fundamental responsibility of every employee. The company does not condone any violation."
Prosecutors said that all except Chien confessed to violating the company's norms in a remorseful manner seeking leniency at the court's ruling. Prosecutors are demanding maximum penalty for Chien.
The newly revised Trade Secrets Act of Taiwan states that those found guilty of leaking trade secrets to China or other countries may receive as many as 10 years in prison and a fine of between $100,000 and $1.6 million. If the guilty is found to have made more than $1.6 million through trade secret sharing, they can be charged 2 to 10 times the amount they made through the unethical practices.
