TAIPEI (Taiwan News) –     Five present and former senior employees of German chemical giant BASF SE in Taiwan were indicted Wednesday (July 24) for selling company secrets worth NT$3.5 billion (US$112 million) to the competition in China.

The mastermind behind the plot, an employee named as Huang Yi-lin (黃奕霖), recruited four former staff members to pass on key technology to China, resulting in the indictments for violating business secrets legislation, breach of trust and copyright violations, the Central News Agency reported.

The BASF Group set up its Taiwan subsidiary in 1990 to provide chemicals to the semiconductor sector, while a similar manufacturer, Jiangyin Jianghua (江陰江化微電子材料公司), was formed in China in 2001. It was Jiangyin which first approached Huang with the request to supply them with the German company’s manufacturing technology, according to a statement by the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office.

In June 2017, Huang and the four former BASF employees even registered a company of their own whose function it was to obtain the confidential information, CNA reported. They set up an affiliate in China and signed a contract with Jiangyin making the Chinese company promise to pay them NT$178 million (US$5.7 million) and annual salaries ranging from NT$2.8 million (US$90,000) to NT$5.5 million. Huang meanwhile still pocketed an annual fee of NT$700,000 from China while he continued working at BASF.

He managed to get his eyes on information so confidential that only seven people worldwide inside the BASF Group were allowed to read, CNA reported.

However, prosecutors found out about the plot and observed the group, taking the opportunity of them all staying in Taiwan last January 3 to detain them. They were found in possession of a considerable amount of confidential data from BASF, prosecutors said.