Taiwan authorities charge Apple supplier Luxshare with corporate espionage

Investigators in Taiwan claim that Luxshare, one of Apple's major manufacturers, lured away staff from rivals and stole company secrets.

Luxshare has been investing in new iPhone assembly facilities, and production factories for wearables and electric cars. Now it's been accused of unfairly poaching staff from other firms — and stealing commercial secrets.

According to Reuters, Taiwanese prosecutors have charged 14 people at Luxshare. It's not clear who has been charged, or whether all face the same accusations.

However, the authorities say that they have charged the people in connection with breach of trust, and taking commercial secrets for use overseas. Specifically, prosecutors say they had targeted rival Catcher Technology staff and secrets "in order to quickly enter the Apple production chain to win orders."

"The department will do its best to investigate such cases," they continued, "to maintain the sound development of our country's enterprises and ensure the competitiveness of national industries."

Neither Apple nor Luxshare have yet commented publicly.