ROTTERDAM (Dec 9): A Rotterdam court held an initial hearing on Monday in the case of a Russian former employee of semiconductor equipment maker ASML who is suspected of stealing intellectual property (IP) and selling it to buyers in Russia in violation of European sanctions.

The suspect was identified in court documents as a 43-year-old man, named German A.

According to Dutch television programme Nieuwsuur, which first reported news of the case on Friday, A is in custody.

He could not be reached for comment and his lawyer's name was not identified in the charge sheet or Dutch press reports.

Prosecutors declined to comment ahead of the hearing.

A spokesperson for ASML said the company was aware of the criminal case.

"In accordance with our policy, we have also filed a complaint ourselves," they said, adding they would not comment further while the legal processes are running.

The charge sheet said the man had unlawfully taken design manuals for "microchips, for photolithography operations for microchips, and for Flip Chip technology classified as 'dual use'" with potential military applications.

The documents belonged to ASML, its Mapper subsidiary and the Delft University of Technology that the suspect had had access to "by virtue of his employment", it said.

He then sold them for at least €43,900 (RM204,856), the charge sheet said, knowing the money was derived from criminal activity, and then concealed the source of the funds he received.

"The defendant made a habit of money laundering," the document said.

ASML bought Mapper, a Dutch firm, out of bankruptcy for €75 million in 2019. That, according to the 2024 book, Focus: The ASML Way, assuaged concerns by the Dutch government and US military that it would be taken over by a Russian or Chinese buyer.

Mapper was trying to make a lithography product similar to ASML's, but using electrons rather than light to print the tiny circuitry of chips, a technology known as E-beam.

That product did not succeed but the fast-growing ASML integrated the firm's 100 engineers into its smaller metrology, or chip-measuring, business.

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