A man and a woman were indicted on Friday in Paris in an investigation into the alleged delivery of semiconductor industrial secrets to China and Russia, AFP learned on Sunday from a source close to the matter.
When requested, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) confirmed these indictments for criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing crimes and offenses punishable by ten years' imprisonment and their placement under judicial supervision.
The man is also being investigated for complicity in abuse by a manager of the property or credit of a company for personal purposes, carried out or facilitated through the interposition of foreign people or structures.
When asked, his lawyer Harold Bataille refused to comment.
Two French and two Chinese already indicted in 2023
In this file, says «Ommic»named after a French semiconductor specialist, two French and two Chinese were indicted in Paris in March 2023, including two managers of this company.
Ommic was bought in 2018 by Ruodan Z., a Chinese businessman in his sixties living in his country, who became president in 2018 via an investment fund created in France.
Marc R., the general director of Ommic, as well as a Chinese executive of the company, were indicted on March 24, 2023 for delivery to a foreign power of processes, documents or files likely to harm fundamental interests of the nation, a crime punishable by 15 years of criminal detention and a fine of 225,000 euros.
According to The Parisianwho had revealed the information, justice suspected Marc R. of having “implemented numerous circumvention schemes to knowingly deliver powerful chips and information on sensitive technologies to China and Russia”under the direction of Ruodan Z.
Gallium nitride at the heart of the matter
Ommic's mastery of gallium nitride, a material which allows increased power of semiconductors, considered in 2021 as “strategic” by an organ of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, would be at the heart of the matter.
But according to The Parisian at the time, these operations would also have succeeded, via a “complex assembly”has “transfer prohibited material to Moscow and circumvent the trade embargo which has targeted the country since the invasion of Crimea, via China”.
These industrial secrets, “at the end of the chain, were very probably used to equip the armies” from Beijing and Moscow, assured the newspaper.
