Ex-HUAWEI employees arrested for leaking secrets to LeEco and Coolpad

In the latest scandal to emerge from China – as if Samsung’s heir apparent almost getting arrested wasn’t enough – HUAWEI has accused six ex-employees of leaking company secrets to LeEco and Coolpad. The six former engineers and designers have now been detained by Chinese authorities for questioning.

Accused of infringing the intellectual property rights of their former employer, the six staff now all work for Coolpad, a subsidiary of LeEco. In their defense, Coolpad notes the claims made by HUAWEI relate to a patent application made before the employees even joined the company.

The ex-employees are said to have left HUAWEI when ex-HONOR president Liu Jiangfeng departed the company to become Coolpad CEO six months ago. Liu has denied the report as a coincidence. Among the detained ex-employees is Wu Bin, chief architect of the HUAWEI P6, who is charged with causing his former company “huge losses”.

In a statement, Coolpad claims those involved deny taking any documents or code from HUAWEI and further deny giving any such information to Coolpad or LeEco. The employees are now under investigation from the Shenzhen public securities department. LeEco said on Weibo that any claims of its involvement were “pure rumor”.