Ex-ASML Employee Suspected of Stealing Trade Secrets, NOS Says

(Bloomberg) — A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, according to Dutch public broadcaster NOS, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment.

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The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam on Monday, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said.

The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power everything from electric vehicles to military gear, and it’s benefited from a surge in artificial intelligence spending. It’s also been the target of earlier data breaches.

ASML accused a former Chinese employee of stealing chip data last year. The ex-worker took data from a software system that the corporation uses to store technical information about its machinery, Bloomberg reported. The employee then went on to work for China’s Huawei Technologies Co.

ASML has previously accused Dongfang Jingyuan Electron Ltd. of obtaining its technology and transferring it to China. One engineer was accused of stealing all 2 million lines of source code for critical ASML software and then sharing part of it with employees at Dongfang and a related company in the US, according to transcripts of the proceedings.

The accused Russian engineer worked for Dutch firm Mapper Lithography that was declared bankrupt in 2018. ASML agreed to acquire the company’s assets and its employees in 2019.

“We are aware of the lawsuit against a former Mapper and ASML employee,” ASML’s spokesperson Monique Mols said. “In accordance with our policy, we have also filed a report ourselves. We will not comment further during the lawsuit.”

The Dutch public prosecution service and the Russian engineer’s lawyer declined to comment to NOS.