The case of a former Samsung Electronics engineer has been sent to the prosecution while they remain in detention on suspicion of leaking the tech giant’s independent semiconductor technology to a Chinese company by poaching key Samsung employees. 

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Tuesday, the case involving the former engineer in their 60s was sent to the prosecution with a recommendation to lay charges under the Employment Security Act.

Police say the former engineer set up a headhunting agency in South Korea, after participating in the founding of the Chinese firm Chengdu High-Tech Jin Science and Technology(CHJS) as an adviser.

They then allegedly scouted more than 30 key employees from Samsung, promising them up to three times their annual salary.

Based on the workers’ knowledge of Samsung’s 20-nano DRAM technology, police say CHJS set up a DRAM production plant in China and successfully began producing wafers within just a year and three months, instead of the four to five years it probably would have taken otherwise.

The police estimate the economic value of the technology to be four-point-three trillion won, or three billion U.S. dollars.