Thursday August 9, 2012
BOSTON (AP) – A former Intel Corp. worker in Massachusetts has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of computer chip manufacturing and design secrets while working for a rival company.
Biswamohan Pani was also sentenced Wednesday in Boston to two years of probation and fined $17, 500. He pleaded guilty in April to five counts of wire fraud.
Prosecutors say the 36-year-old Pani downloaded secret documents from Intel in May and 2008, shortly after he announced he was leaving his job in Hudson, Mass.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel valued those documents at between $200 million and $400 million. The company detected and reported the theft.
Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. hired Pani and cooperated with investigators. The Sunnyvale, Calif. company did not know of Pani’s scheme.