It is no secret that HTC is going through a tough time. The company has been struggling – financially and administratively – with most of its devices meeting with lukewarm responses, and high level executives leaving the company. The One has helped HTC to stage a comeback somewhat, but the road ahead is still tough for HTC.

Today, adding to their woes is the arrest of some of their  senior level designers in Taipei, over the suspicion of fraudulent expense claims and stealing of some trade secrets. Of the five people arrested, the notable ones include Vice President of Product design Thomas Chien, R&D Director Wu Chien Hung and the person who personally sketched out the One’s design, Justin Huang.

Reports suggest that HTC’s chairwoman, Cher Wang, personally filed a complaint against them. Apparently, some of the top level designers had planned to setup a new design company, and were planning on resigning after taking their mid-year bonuses. Apparently, one of the person was also caught downloading some of the secret Sense 6.0 files, which were then shared with some people from outside HTC. The data would have helped the designers with their new design firm, which would aim at designing handsets for Chinese markets.

Monetary wise, these people used an external design firm to make HTC pay over $330,000 in commission, which they then shared between themselves. It will be interesting to see how HTC copes up with the leaked files, and the loss of so many top level executives, and how it will affect its products.

HTC responded on the issue with a vague “the matter is under investigation by relevant authorities.”

Via – Engadget