Former Engineer Indicted for Leaking Trade Secrets at Lectures

A former engineer surnamed Li at Avago Taiwan is accused of illegally copying customer order data, as well as videos and presentations from meetings hosted by the company's president, and leaking them to attendees during external lectures while still employed. The Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted Li today for violating the Trade Secret Act and other charges. According to the indictment, Avago Taiwan is a subsidiary of the US-based Broadcom Inc., engaged in the design, development, and supply of semiconductors and infrastructure software. Li worked at Avago from August 2012 to March 2025, serving as an application engineer and regional sales engineer. Prosecutors pointed out that during his tenure, Li used his work laptop to log into the customer order analysis system without authorization, illegally copying and downloading trade secrets such as customer orders, financial forecasts, product development progress, and customer lists to create lecture materials. Furthermore, he accessed the company's secure cloud storage to copy videos and presentations from quarterly meetings hosted by Broadcom's CEO. Between January 2024 and March 2025, Li accepted invitations to hold 85 lectures in Taipei under the title of 'Broadcom Expert,' where he leaked these trade secrets and earned a total of 2,958,000 TWD. The company discovered the leaks following a tip-off and filed a complaint.