The High Prosecutors Office in Taiwan, China, which is delving into the case involving the theft of TSMC's cutting-edge 2nm core technology, has unveiled a new twist. It was found that Chen Liming, a former engineer at TSMC, upon joining the Japanese firm TEL, resorted to bribing two of his ex-colleagues at TSMC, namely Wu Bingyi and Ge Yiping. His motive was to illicitly acquire parameter formulas, which would provide him with quantitative testing data crucial for the operation of 'etching machines'. In the previous year, prosecutors brought formal charges against the trio of engineers, accusing them of breaching the National Security Act and urging the court to impose stringent penalties on each.

As the investigation progressed, prosecutors stumbled upon additional evidence. They discovered that another TSMC staff member, identified only by the surname Chen, had also divulged the sensitive core technology to Chen Liming. Furthermore, an individual surnamed Lu, who is an employee at TEL, was found to have been involved in tampering with evidence. Consequently, today saw the additional indictment of these three individuals, along with TEL itself.