A former employee of the manufacturer of microcircuit manufacturing machines ASML and the chip manufacturer NXP, who has been in custody for several months on suspicion of theft of trade secrets, had contacts with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
This is stated in an official message from the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (AIVD) to the prosecutor's office, reports “European Pravda” with reference to NOS.
The Rotterdam court discussed the report today during a formal hearing in the case against the former employee. According to the prosecutor's office, the report was received on December 23. The AIVD writes that there was contact between a man in the Netherlands and an employee of the SZR.
According to the AIVD, the SZR is engaged, among other things, in obtaining “intelligence information on science and technology”.
In early December, Nieuwsuur reported that a Russian engineer who worked for ASML and NXP, among others, had been arrested in the Netherlands. He had allegedly stolen company secrets for years and shared them with a Russian contact. These were instructions and other digital documents.
According to the prosecutor's office, the documents, as well as the man's technological knowledge, were intended for the creation of a microchip manufacturing plant in Russia. In addition to stealing trade secrets, he is also accused of violating sanctions.
Despite the fact that the man is only a suspect, the Minister for Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber has imposed a 20-year entry ban on him. This only happens to people who pose a threat to national security.
During today's hearing, the prosecutor's office provided more information about how the suspect sent information to Russia. An examination of the hard drive showed that he stored technical information about the manufacture of computer chips in special folders. The special username “Focus” was used for this. The information was transferred to another person via Google Drive.
According to the prosecutor's office, this person is in Russia and, “as far as is known,” works at the Russian Innovative Engineering Center. This organization finances projects aimed at obtaining technologies from abroad or replacing them with Russian ones.
The company's clients are large Russian companies, including the arms manufacturer Rostec and the oil companies Gazprom and Rosneft.
In a speech to SVR employees in June 2022, three months after the invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin called promoting Russia's industrial and technological development one of the priorities of the special service, especially against the backdrop of Western sanctions.
This is not the first case of exposure of Russians working for the SVR in the Netherlands. In 2020, the AIVD discovered that two diplomats worked for this service. They hunted for sensitive information from Dutch high-tech companies and institutions.
In 2022, investigations by NOS and Nieuwsuur revealed that some of the seventeen expelled Russian intelligence officers also worked for the SVR. The investigation revealed that these officers, among other things, collected information about computer chips.
The Dutch National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism and Security (NCTV), Peter-Jap Albersberg, said in October last year that Russia and China were stepping up cyberattacks on the state and its allies.
Finland has also previously reported numerous cases of sabotage, cyberattacks and destabilization, and has blamed Russia for conducting influence operations against the country.