Former ASML employee accused of selling IP to Russia
A former employee at ASML Holding NV (Veldhoven, The Netherlands) has been accused in a Rotterdam court of stealing and selling intellectual property to Russian buyers.
The accused was only identified as a 43-year-old Russian called “German A.” in the initial hearing held Monday, according to local Dutch reports.
However, the Dutch television program Nieuwsuur has reported that the individual has already received a 20-year ban on re-entering the Netherlands from the Marjolein Faber, the Dutch Minister of Asylum and Migration. This type of ban is imposed only in the case of a threat to national security, the TV station’s website states.
Court documents allege the theft of design manuals for photolithography and flip-chip packaging technology while the accused was employed at ASML. The materials reportedly came from ASML, its subsidiary Mapper, and Delft University of Technology. German A. allegedly sold these documents for at least €43,900, reports said. The individual has more recently been working for NXP Semiconductors.
The individual was trained at Russian universities and probably joined Mapper Lithography when the Dutch e-beam lithography company set up a MEMS subsidiary in Moscow.
Mapper was founded as a spin off from Delft University of Technology in 2000 to develop a multiple electron beam maskless lithography system. The creation of the Moscow production facility follows on from the announcement in 2012 that Russia’s government-owned investment fund Rusnano would invest about €40 million (then about US$50 million) in Mapper. The MEMS factory was intended to produce lens elements for Mapper e-beam lithography machines.
German A. turned up working for Mapper in the Netherlands in 2015 and reportedly has several patents in his name.
In the 2H18 Mapper sold its Moscow operation, Mapper LLC, to Rusnano and declared itself bankrupt. In January 2019 ASML announced it had agreed to acquire the intellectual property assets of Mapper and offer suitable positions to Mapper’s employees working in R&D and product assembly. Reportedly ASML was pressured by the US and Dutch governments to make the acquisition to prevent the knowledge within the startup falling into Russian or Chinese hands.
In Russia, Mapper LLC is now owned by Astron, a Russian military drone maker, according to Nieuwsuur. The TV program states that both Mapper and Astron are subject to US sanctions.
At about the time of ASML’s acquisition of Mapper Lithography the company was also prey to attempts at IP theft by two former employees with connections to the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
In that case in 2014 two former employees of ASML in Silicon Valley set up XTAL Inc. and a parent company in China Dongfang Jingyuan Electronics Ltd. to offer IC design and manufacturing optimization services. The founders of XTAL worked with two former colleagues within ASML subsidiary Brion Inc. to steal confidential information.
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