Thursday, February 14, 2008

[The Chosun Ilbo, February 4 2008] WiBro Thieves Get Jail Terms

An appellate court has handed down prison sentences for four former researchers who tried to steal Korean-developed WiBro technology, the third-generation global standard wireless broadband technology. They were arrested in court. In the first trial, only one of the four had been sentenced to jail. But the Seoul High Court put all four researchers in prison terms as a deterrent against technology leaks.

The court said Sunday it sentenced the four to up to two years in prison on charges of stealing WiBro technology developed by Korean IT firm POSDATA. The accused were former researchers with the firm.

They stole the core WiBro technology over six months between September 2006 and March 2007 and attempted to pass it to a company they established in the U.S. They planned to headhunt some 30 researchers from POSDATA, offering high salaries and stock options as incentives, to complete the technology and sell it to a U.S. communications company for W180 billion (US$1=W944).

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