Former Intel Employee Pleads Guilty to Stealing Data To Give To AMD
A former Intel engineer accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of information from the chipmaker to advance his career with a competitor (AMD) has 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 faces up to 20 years in prison on each count, and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 8.
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. AMD fired Pani in 2008 and AMD was not accused of wrongdoing.
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