Six HTC employees have been reportedly accused of leaking company's trade secrets, receiving 1.1 million dollars from kickbacks and creating false phone expense reports.
The Taipei District Prosecutors Office has alleged that former vice president for product design at HTC, Thomas Chien along with five others leaked the design for an upcoming HTC smartphone interface to outside suppliers.
According to Cnet, the indicted employees had planned to use the leaked information to launch their own design company in Taiwan and China.
The indicted employees include HTC research and development director Wu Chien-hung, HTC senior manager of design and innovation Huang Kuo-ching, senior manager of design and innovation Huang Hung-yi, manufacturing design department manager Hung Chung-yi, and employee Chen Shih-tsou.
The report said that under Taiwan's recently revised Trade Secrets Act, those found guilty of leaking trade secrets to China or other countries can receive as many as 10 years in prison and a fine of between 100,000 dollars and 1.6 million dollars.
Meanwhile, an HTC representative said that the company expects employees to observe and practice the highest levels of integrity and ethics and does not condone any violation.