UPDATE 1-Chinese employees stole corporate secrets from ASML -Dutch newspaper FD

Chinese employees stole corporate secrets from Dutch semi-conductor equipment maker ASML , resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, leading Dutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad (FD) reported on Thursday.

The paper said, citing its own investigation, technology had been stolen by high-level Chinese employees in the research and development department and leaked to the Chinese government. "ASML found no hard proof of involvement of the Chinese government," FD quoted the Veldhoven-based firm as saying.

The newspaper based its report partly on company sources and in part on a November 2018 ruling by a California court in a case between ASML's U.S. subsidiary and XTAL Inc., which filed for bankruptcy a month later. An ASML spokeswoman told Reuters the company was aware of the FD report and was preparing a response. (Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Toby Sterling; Editing by Stephen Coates and Himani Sarkar)