Ex-ASML engineer who stole chip tech for Russia gets three years in Dutch prison

A former ASML and NXP semiconductor engineer will spend three years in a Dutch prison after stealing secret chip technology from his employers and sharing it with Russia.

The Rotterdam District Court convicted an unnamed 43-year-old defendant of computer hacking and violating EU sanctions by illegally providing technical assistance to Russia.

While the Dutch court documents don't name the defendant, earlier media reports claim the perpetrator was a Russian national named German Aksenov, and report that he sold the corporate data to Russia's FSB intelligence service. He reportedly raked in €40,000 (about $44,000) in exchange for the chip makers' IP.

Prosecutors, however, could not prove that Aksenov sold the stolen files or that the money he deposited in his bank account was related to the information he shared.

Between May 2023 and August 2024, the defendant shared files from both of his former companies with an ...