A former engineer for the company is alleged to have downloaded confidential documents worth more than $1billion.
An ex-engineer for microprocessor giant Intel has been charged with stealing trade secrets worth $1billion from the firm - potentially with the intent of using them to further his career at rival chip manufacturer AMD.
Biswamohan Pani, who worked in the company’s Hudson-based division until June this year, now faces one count of theft of trade secrets and four counts of wire fraud.
It is alleged that after resigning from the company, Pani downloaded more than a dozen confidential documents from Intel’s computer system. Together these documents are estimated to be worth more than $1billion in research and development costs.
The incident took place over a four day period in which Pani was technically employed by both Intel and AMD. Using up excess holiday owed to him before he left the company he obtained authorisation to continue accessing Intel’s systems under the pretence of researching a hedge fund job he was considering.
While Pani maintains that he was accessing the data to give to his wife, who also works for Intel, Federal prosecutors have speculated that the engineer instead planned to use the information to further his career at new employer and Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Should the 33 year old be convicted, he faces a significant amount of time behind bars with up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud plus up to an additional 10 years as punishment for the theft of trade secrets charge applicable.
Despite Pani being on the company’s payroll at the time of the incident, AMD have not been implicated in the confidentiality breech.
In a formal statement a representative of the firm said:
"AMD has not been accused of wrongdoing, and the FBI has stated that there is no evidence that AMD had any involvement in or awareness of Mr. Pani's alleged actions,"
AMD currently own a 20% share in the global microprocessor market, with Intel governing the remaining 80%.
