Pani Pleads Guilty to Theft of Trade Secrets from Intel: U.S. Attorney

A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud for the theft of documents from Intel (News - Alert). They relate to computer chip manufacturing and design – and are extremely valuable.

Biswamohan Pani, 36, entered the plea last week before U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV. He is now awaiting sentencing.

Federal officials allege that when Pani was working at Intel, he found a job at Advanced Micro Devices (News - Alert). For a period of time in 2008, he was working at both companies – even though they are rivals.

Around this time, too, Pani secretly downloaded internal documents from Intel, which offered details on its manufacturing and design of computer chips.

“Pani remotely accessed Intel’s computer system numerous times and downloaded 13 of Intel’s most valuable documents, along with other confidential and proprietary information, and a document explaining how encrypted documents could be reviewed when not connected to Intel’s computer system,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston. “Pani also backed up the downloaded files to an external hard drive for access after he left Intel.”

About a month later, the FBI found documents he had downloaded, in his apartment.

Intel valued the documents at between $200 million and $400 million, or more, court documents revealed. Another published estimate valued the trade secrets at $1 billion.

The documents were retrieved soon enough so the company avoided a major loss. AMD (News - Alert) also helped in the investigation. It appears AMD had no idea that Pani had downloaded the documents and the company had no role in the scheme.

Pani will be sentenced on Aug. 8, 2012. He could receive up to 20 years in prison on each count, three years of supervised release, forfeiture, restitution, and a fine of $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston.

Carmen M. Ortiz, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, who handled the case, recommended Pani get sentenced to six years in prison, according to a report carried on CIO.com.

TMCnet estimated in 2008 that Pani could have faced up to 90 years in prison for the crimes.