TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Prosecutors are investigating three Chinese companies for conducting illegal operations and recruiting senior engineers in Taiwan, reports said Wednesday (July 26).

Investigators searched the Taipei offices of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Cnano Technology Co., Ltd., and TenaFe, Inc. on Tuesday (July 25), the Liberty Times reported. The raids led to three employees being investigated for helping the companies illegally recruit senior Taiwanese engineers and experts.

A man surnamed Tung (董) was freed on bail of NT$500,000 (US$16,000) and barred from leaving the country. The two other employees, surnamed Yang (楊) and Chang (張), were released on bail of NT$300,000 and NT$200,000 respectively.

Yang had been managing an illegal subsidiary in Taiwan for Jiangsu Cnano since 2015, while Tung had been working for Yangtze Memory and TenaFe from 2017 to 2019. The searches and interrogations are not over and might turn up similar cases, the Liberty Times said.

Yangtze Memory, a manufacturer of flash memory or NAND chips, was targeted for sanctions by the United States, making it unable to buy tools or parts for old tools in the U.S.