• By Liao Hsueh-ju and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Separate investigations into two Chinese semiconductor companies, Ark Semi (艾科微電子) and Kimtigo (金泰克半導體), found they used third-party investments and poached local tech talent to illegally establish research and development (R&D) centers in Taiwan, the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office said today.

Searches of the companies’ offices and employee residences on Wednesday and yesterday were led by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau in Taipei, Taichung and Hsinchu.

The companies were found to have seriously impacted Taiwan’s semiconductor industry by leveraging Taiwanese expertise to advance Chinese enterprises, the office said.

Photo courtesy of the Investigation Bureau

Six suspects and seven witnesses were summoned for questioning, while officials seized internal documents, laptops and mobile phones as evidence, it said.

Five suspects were found to have contravened laws including Article 93-2 of the Act Governing the Relations Between the People of Taiwan and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), it said.

Chinese companies are prohibited from conducting operations in Taiwan without approval from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Investment Review to protect domestic industrial competitiveness and economic interests, it said.

The five suspects were released on bail ranging from NT$300,000 to NT$400,000, it added.

Searches of Ark Semi’s Taiwan offices and employee residences were conducted in Taipei’s Nangang District (南崗) and Hsinchu County and City on Wednesday, headed by Hsinchu prosecutor Wang Yuan-chih (王遠志), it said.

Four suspects and two witnesses were brought in for questioning, with three suspects released on bail, it said.

Separate searches into Kimtigo offices and employee residences were conducted yesterday in Taichung and Hsinchu, led by prosecutor Liao Chi-tsun (廖啟村), it added.

Two suspects and five witnesses were summoned for questioning, with the two suspects deemed to have committed serious offenses and released on bail of NT$300,000 each, it said.