A court in Rotterdam has sentenced a 43-year-old Russian national known as German A. to three years in prison on charges of industrial espionage.

Source: NOS, a Dutch public broadcaster, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Rotterdam court found German A. guilty of violating European Union sanctions that have been in place since 2014 and committing an offence against information security.

Investigators found that the Russian was employed by the Dutch microchip companies ASML and NXP from 2021 to 2024, during which time he regularly copied confidential information from their servers.

This included information on Dutch microchip production technology which the court concluded he did not need for the purposes of his work.

The investigation revealed that after visiting Russia, A. received “significant sums of money” in his bank account and that he deposited €43,900 in cash between 2021 and 2024.

A. admitted in court that he had provided advice to Russians, but claimed he had stored the confidential information from the Dutch microchip manufacturers “for his personal use” and had been unaware that it should not be transferred to Russia.

“This may have contributed to strengthening the military or strategic potential of that country [Russia – ed.], which has consequences for Ukraine and may indirectly affect international security and stability,” the court stated.

German A. was detained in December 2024. He had already been banned from entering the Netherlands for twenty years as he was considered a threat to national security.

The prosecution had sought a four-year prison sentence, but the court found no conclusive evidence that A. had received the money specifically in exchange for the information he transferred.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!

From Ukrainska Pravda via this RSS feed