Dutch authorities arrest Russian engineer over industrial espionage in microelectronics

A 43-year-old Russian national and employee of the microchip-producing company NXP, German A., has been detained in the Netherlands on charges of industrial espionage, according to local media reports late last week. The Insider has verified that the individual in question is Russian engineer German Aksyonov.

Online newspaper NU.nl wrote that Aksyonov's criminal trial was set to begin in Rotterdam on Monday, Dec. 9.

At different times, Aksyonov was employed by the Dutch companies ASML and Mapper. According to the investigation, he spent several years stealing critical company documents, such as microchip operation manuals, and transferring them to Russia in exchange for payments totaling tens of thousands of euros. In addition to facing criminal charges, Aksyonov has been banned from entering the Netherlands for 20 years — a measure local journalists note is typically applied in cases of national security threats.

Mapper, which eventually went bankrupt and was acquired by ASML, was part of a deal reportedly influenced by pressure from the Pentagon, as the U.S. military leadership had expressed concerns that Mapper's laser technologies could fall into Russian or Chinese hands as a result of the bankruptcy.

Leaked Russian database records reveal that in 2016, Aksyonov also worked for JSC NIIME and Mikron (ОАО «НИИМЭ и Микрон»), a Moscow-based company focused on developing multi-electron beam lithography technology. Dutch media further reported that Aksyonov had been employed at LLC Mapper (ООО «Маппер») — the company’s subsidiary in Russia.

As previously reported by The Insider, LLC Mapper is one of five Russian companies using ASML’s lithography equipment to produce microchips. While domestic production remains economically impractical and technologically behind, the Russian military may have its own reasons for favoring local manufacturing. Since 2018, LLC Mapper has no longer been affiliated with its Dutch parent company and is now owned by Astrohn (Астрон), a company that produces drones and thermal imaging equipment, among other products.

The Insider also discovered that in 2023, LLC Mapper imported an American-made argon laser — the KLA-Tencor Surfscan 6200 — used for scanning semiconductor wafers to detect defects as small as 200 nanometers.