Former Intel Engineer Pleads Guilty To Stealing Documents

A former Intel engineer has been accused of stealing documents from the chipmaker estimated to be worth somewhere in the area of $200 million-$400 million. The former employee has pled guilty to stealing the documents and awaits sentencing. The worker is Biswamohan Pani and he pled guilty to five counts of fraud.

The case is being heard in US District Court by Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Worcester, Massachusetts. Pani worked for one of Intel's chip making plants located in Hudson, Massachusetts in 2008. When the man turned in his resignation Intel on May 29, 2008, he asked his last day of work be June 11, 2008. Apparently, he was already an employee at rival AMD on June 2 and still had access to the Intel computer systems.

While still having access to Intel computer systems, the man begin downloading confidential documents from Intel that have to do with the design and manufacture of computer processors. Intel reported the theft right away and AMD cooperated with the investigation. It appears that no one at AMD asked the man to steal the documents and the documents were not used by anyone at AMD. Pani faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the five counts of fraud.

[via Bloomberg]