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Samsung Biologics employee sentenced to three years for stealing confidential documents

Published: 11 Jul. 2025, 18:05 Updated: 11 Jul. 2025, 18:14

Bottles of pharmaceutical products are displayed at the Samsung Biologics promotion center in Yeonsu District, Incheon, on May 25, 2021. [YONHAP]

A former Samsung Biologics employee was sentenced to three years in prison for illegally taking company documents that included "national core technologies" in biotechnology. The court immediately remanded the former worker into custody.

The Incheon District Court’s Criminal Division 5 found the 46-year-old former employee guilty of violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act and other laws, according to legal insiders on Friday.

“Given the large volume of materials the defendant misappropriated and the fact that they included national core technologies in biotechnology, a prison sentence is unavoidable,” the judge said.

Prosecutors had earlier sought a five-year prison term during closing arguments.

The former employee allegedly spent about 10 days in early December 2022 extracting 175 sets of confidential company documents, including standard operating procedures (SOP), totaling some 3,700 pages.

On Dec. 13 of that year, security staff caught the worker trying to carry roughly 300 printed pages of trade secrets out of Samsung Biologics’ headquarters in Songdo, Incheon. Police arrested the suspect on the spot.

Investigators said the stolen documents contained two categories of national core technologies: IT SOPs and analyses of regulatory guidelines from various countries. These are critical to maintaining the quality competitiveness of mass production processes for biopharmaceuticals.

Following the verdict, Samsung Biologics stressed the importance of safeguarding its intellectual property.

“The technologies we’ve accumulated through the efforts of countless employees are the company’s core assets,” the company said. “We will continue to respond vigorously to any attempts to leak trade secrets or national core technologies.”

Industry experts noted the significance of the ruling.

“This is a landmark case where a court recognized the theft of core technologies in the bio sector, following similar cases in semiconductors and displays,” one industry insider said. “It’s likely to influence how courts handle similar disputes going forward.”

The ruling comes amid other ongoing cases involving Samsung Biologics. In June 2022, a former employee who got a job at Lotte Biologics was indicted for allegedly stealing 49 files, including SOPs. That case is still going through the courts.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]