San Francisco: A former Intel engineer accused of stealing $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) worth of information from the chipmaker to advance his career with a competitor pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges.
Biswamohan Pani, 36, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Thursday admitted to stealing "valuable computer chip manufacturing and design documents from his former employer", according to a US Justice Department statement. He pleaded guilty to five fraud counts before US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Worcester, Massachusetts, the government said.
Pani, who worked at Santa Clara, California-based Intel's chip-making plant in Hudson, Massachusetts, gave notice of his intent to leave on May 29, 2008, and asked that his last day of work be June 11, according to the US. He started at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on June 2, while retaining access to Intel's data system, prosecutors said. "Unbeknownst to Intel, Pani had started downloading from Intel computers numerous secret documents about Intel's manufacturing and design of computer chips," the Justice Department said.
Intel put a value of $200 million to $400 million on the documents that Pani admitted to stealing and that federal agents found in his home, prosecutors said.
Reached by phone, Boston defence attorney Liam Scully, who appeared in court with Pani Thursday, had no immediate comment on the guilty plea. Pani was charged in August 2008.
"The FBI was able to recover these documents quickly, before Pani could use them to Intel's disadvantage, largely because Intel reported the theft quickly and assisted the investigation," the US said.
