Create a free Manufacturing.net account to continue

Ex-Intel Worker Gets 3 Years For Stealing Secrets

Prosecutors say the 36-year-old Pani downloaded secret documents, valued at between $200 million and $400 million, before being hired by rival AMD.

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 2008, shortly after he announced he was leaving his Hudson, Mass., job.

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 didn't know of Pani's scheme.

More in Operations