Former tech company engineer indicted for trade secret theft, allegedly profiting more than TWD2.95 million

　A former engineer surnamed Lee at Avago Technologies Taiwan Limited (hereinafter “Avago Technologies”) had allegedly taken advantage of his position to steal the company’s undisclosed customer orders, financial forecasts and contents of confidential high-level management meetings for an extended period.  He used such information to prepare training materials for paid seminars, thus gaining a profit of more than TWD2.95 million.  Taipei District Prosecutors Office conducted an investigation and found that the evidence was sufficient to support the allegations and thus formally indicted Lee.  This case was referred to and heard by the IPC Court.  

　According to the indictment, Lee had been employed by Avago Technologies (whose patent company is U.S.-based Broadcom Inc.) from August 2012 through March 2025.  During his employment at Avago Technologies, Lee served as an application engineer and a regional sales engineer at the company’s semiconductor solutions department and was primarily responsible to promote products, handle customer matters, and maintain customer relationships.  Due to his job duties, Lee became highly familiar with the company’s internal operation and commercial information.  

　The prosecutor found that during his employment at the company, Lee had signed the company’s employee handbook, Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Insider Trading Compliance Policy, and Proprietary Information and Invention Agreement, as well as a confidentiality agreement with the company.  This to say, despite being fully aware of his obligation to keep the company’s trade secrets confidential, Lee took the risk of violating his obligations for personal gains.  

　Lee used a laptop provided by the company to access the company’s internal customer order analysis system, where he illegally reproduced and downloaded the company’s confidential informational, including customer product orders, financial forecasts, product R&D progress, and customer lists.  Also, Lee accessed the company’s cloud storage system to secretly record and download the videos and presentation materials from the high-level meetings chaired by Mr. Hock E. Tan (president and CEO of Broadcom Inc.) and Mr. Charlie Kawwas (president of the Semiconductor Solutions Group), and subsequently used screenshots and photographs of such materials to create his training materials.  From January 2024 through March 2025, Lee had accepted invitations from two companies to hold paid seminars at various locations in Taipei City, promoting himself as a “Broadcom expert” and conducted as many as 85 sessions.  

　In the aforesaid seminars, Lee not only displayed Broadcom’s internal presentations directly but also publicly described the CEO’s conversations at the high-level meetings.  By using the parent company’s trade secrets as the training materials, Lee had earned TWD2,958,000 in speaking fees.  This case came to light after Avago Technologies initiated an internal investigation upon a whistleblower’s report, and through the investigation, the company discovered that their confidential information had been leaked.  Therefore, the company gathered evidence and reported the matter to the New Taipei City Field Division of the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau for investigation.  

　The prosecutor held that Lee had seriously breached his duty of loyalty to the company for his personal financial gain, and the commercial information he disclosed had significant economic value in the market, for which the company had already taken reasonable measures to protect its confidentiality.  As such, the prosecutor indicted Lee on charges of violating the Trade Secrets Act by using or disclosing trade secrets he knew or possessed without authorization as well as breach of trust under the Criminal Code.  As the offenses are subject to a concurrence of statutory provisions, prosecutors recommended that the defendant should be sentenced under the more severe offense.  Furthermore, given that the alleged offenses occurred within a relatively short period and involved the same legally protected interests, prosecutors further recommended that the acts be treated as a single continuous offense for sentencing purposes.  (Released 2026.05.25)  
/CCS