TSMC 2nm Leak Case Verdict: Lora Chen Sentenced to 10 Years, Tokyo Electronics Subsidiary Fined $150 million

According to Action One Beating monitoring, the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court of China Taiwan has issued a first-instance judgment on the TSMC 2nm process commercial secret case. Former TSMC and Tokyo Electron Taiwan subsidiary employee Chen Liming was sentenced to 10 years, and the Tokyo Electron Taiwan subsidiary was fined NT$150 million.

The judgment found that after leaving TSMC, Chen Liming joined the marketing department of Tokyo Electron's Taiwan subsidiary and requested advanced process information from engineers still working at TSMC to help Tokyo Electron secure more TSMC equipment orders. The information involved in the case includes the commercial secrets related to the etching equipment used in 2nm production, with some information obtained through photography and replication.

Among the other defendants, the three other implicated TSMC employees, Wu Bingjun, Ge Yiping, and Chen Weijie, were sentenced to 3 years, 2 years, and 6 years, respectively; Tokyo Electron Taiwan subsidiary employee Lu Yiyin was sentenced to 10 months with a 3-year probation. The NT$150 million fine imposed on the Tokyo Electron Taiwan subsidiary can be suspended, with the condition that they compensate TSMC NT$100 million and pay NT$50 million to the public treasury.

After being additionally charged last year, Tokyo Electron had stated that the prosecutors did not accuse the Tokyo Electron Group or the Taiwan subsidiary of organizing employees to improperly obtain information, and an internal investigation found no evidence of confidential information being leaked to third parties. TSMC had previously stated that it maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards the leakage of commercial secrets and has strengthened internal controls.