By Lee Hyo-sik

Police raided the headquarters of Woongjin Chemical in downtown Seoul last month over allegations that the company conspired with an employee of a local semiconductor parts maker to steal manufacturing technologies from the latter.

An international crime investigation unit at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency said Monday that it dispatched four investigators to the chemical unit of Woongjin Group on April 24 to confiscate computer servers.

They are currently analyzing them to check whether the employee recently hired by the chemical firm had stolen technology concerning the manufacturing of semiconductor parts from his former employer. Police suspect that the staff member sent the secret information to Woongjin via email.

``We are looking into allegations that the worker stole corporate secrets regarding the manufacturing of a metal filter from his former employee before moving to Woongjin Chemical,’’ a police officer said. ``We suspect he handed over the information to Woongjin via email. We are also investigating whether the chemical company colluded with the suspect to steal the technology.’’

But a spokesman for Woongjin Chemical, a leading local synthetic fiber maker, flatly denied such claims, stressing that the firm was not engaged in any illicit activities.

``It is true that our headquarters were raided by police investigators three weeks ago. But I can assure you that there was nothing wrong with the way we hired the employee at issue,’’ he said.

``We strictly followed an internal guideline when recruiting the man suspected of having committed industrial espionage. None of our employees had prior contact with him,’’ the spokesman said.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr