An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Samsung Electronics official accused of giving semiconductor know-how info to a Chinese chipmaker, as Seoul cracks down on industrial espionage.

A decide issued the warrant on Friday, the Seoul Central District Court stated in an announcement on Saturday morning. Prosecutors had sought the warrant on Wednesday on suspicion the unidentified official gave info associated to 18-nano DRAM memory chip technology to China’s Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT).

Prosecutors stated the injury attributable to the know-how leak could possibly be about 2.3 trillion received ($1.8 billion), the Korea Economic Daily newspaper reported, including that the case additionally entails dozens of others from Samsung Electronics’ suppliers.

Samsung, the world’s prime reminiscence chipmaker, stated it had no remark.

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Hefei-based CXMT declined to touch upon the matter particularly however stated in an announcement it respects mental property rights and has a sturdy mechanism to forestall the influx of third-party info from its staff.

Owned by state-backed mother or father Innotron Memory, CXMT is China’s main maker of DRAM reminiscence chips.

The man left Samsung for CXMT in 2016, native media have reported. Prosecutors and the court docket declined to touch upon whether or not he nonetheless works for CXMT.

Prosecutors declined to touch upon the reported extent of the injury from the leak.

In South Korea’s crackdown on industrial espionage, one other former Samsung official is on trial accused of stealing firm info to assist a shopper arrange a chip manufacturing facility in China. The defendant, Choi Jinseog, denies the fees and is out on bail.