Former HTC CEO gets eight years in prison for corporate espionage

A Taiwan court has sentenced a former HTC chief to eight years and a month in prison for industrial espionage. In the company’s heyday, he passed on information about upcoming designs of HTC’s Android skin to Chinese companies.

HTC One M7 with Sense 5

The chief executive led HTC’s software design department in Taiwan and was paid to pass confidential information to Chinese companies, Taipei Times reports. For example, he showed early the design of HTC’s Sense 6.0 interface to Chinese companies. He also founded a company in Taiwan to support those Chinese companies in product development.

The court has ordered him to repay an amount of approximately 200,000 euros that he received for passing on the trade secrets.

The top designer worked with five other HTC employees. They were arrested in August 2013. It was then also charged that they had sold the design of the metal unibody housing of the One M7 to competitors. When he was arrested, the police found a total of 300,000 euros in cash in his house and sports car. The CEO can appeal against the conviction, because it concerns a case at a lower court. Whether he does so is not yet known.