A race has started in the tech world ever since Samsung announced that it plans to introduce the world’s first foldable smartphone at the Mobile World Congress stage in 2019. All other companies are trying to develop similar devices and it looks like one of Samsung’s competitors might have decided to cheat and use corporate espionage. The reason we are saying this because South Korean prosecutors have arrested nine people who were involved in stealing secrets from Samsung and selling them to the highest bidder in China.
Samsung’s Secrets Have Been Stolen
Reuters reports that nine people who are suspected of “leaking “ details that show how Samsung created the flexible display technology have been indicted by South Korean prosecutors. The leaksters who are accused of corporate espionage are said to have received $13.85 million from an unknown bidder located in China. As we all know, Huawei is a Chinese based smartphone manufacturer who is competing directly with Samsung.
Is It Huawei?
Even though it would make sense for Huawei to be one who purchased Samsung’s secrets, we can’t be sure of this. On the other hand, Huawei did announce on October that it’s working on a foldable smartphone that has a bendable display just like Galaxy F does which makes Huawei a prime suspect.
“The group are accused of forming a separate shell company that received information on the use of equipment and drawings of panels obtained from Samsung subsidiary Samsung Display, and which sold some of the documents in China for 15.5 billion won ($13.85 million),” said the South Korean prosecutors.
“Our company has never provided Samsung Display’s industrial technology or business secrets to a Chinese client. Our company will fully cooperate with legal proceedings to find the truth in court.” said Toptec which is the company that is accused of stealing the secrets.
