On November 1, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") indicted UMC, Fujian, and Chen Zhengkun a.k.a. Stephen Chen ("Chen"), a former Micron employee hired by UMC, for conspiracy to commit economic espionage, conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, and economic espionage (receiving and possessing stolen trade secrets). The indictment stated that the companies conspired to steal trade secrets from Micron relating to its research and development of memory storage devices. According to the indictment, the conspiracy to commit economic espionage began in or around January 2016, the conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets began in or about October 2015, and the economic espionage (receiving and possessing stolen trade secrets) began in or about February 2016. According to the DOJ's indictment, Chen, a Taiwanese national, resigned as the President of Micron's subsidiary, Micron Memory Taiwan Co., Ltd. ("MMT"), in July 2015.