Former Intel Employee Pleads Guilty to Data Theft

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36-year Biswamohan Pani old has pleaded guilty of stealing chip design documents valued at several hundred million dollars from his former employer Intel.

The engineer quit his job at Intel on June 11 of 2008, but joined AMD on June 2, while he was still able to access Intel's servers. Pani downloaded "numerous" confidential documents that were originally estimated to be worth about $1 billion, but were tagged by Intel with a value of about $200 to $400 million later on. The engineer apparently intended to advance his career by bringing the documents to AMD.

The FBI, which led the investigation, said that no information has actually reached AMD as Intel quickly reported the theft. Pani was originally charged with data fraud in August of 2008.

AMD was said to have cooperated with the investigation. According to the FBI, there is no evidence that anyone at AMD knew that Pani had the information and there were no signs that anyone at AMD asked Pani for the documents. Sentencing is scheduled for August 8. Each count of fraud carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Douglas Perry
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • coreym72
    As long as AMD is in the clear for not knowing then justice is served. You can give me a $400 million chip design but it doesn’t do me any good with only a soldering iron. :)
    Reply
  • house70
    20 years? For each?
    I wonder how many years the fraudsters from the banks and other financial institutions will get.
    Oh, right, nevermind. They all got promoted or played musical chairs between jobs.
    This one dude gets the shaft, though, because he defrauded a corporation. Not that I applaud what he did, but when it's the other way around, nothing happens to said corporations.
    Reply
  • Northwestern
    house7020 years? For each?I wonder how many years the fraudsters from the banks and other financial institutions will get.Oh, right, nevermind. They all got promoted or played musical chairs between jobs. This one dude gets the shaft, though, because he defrauded a corporation. Not that I applaud what he did, but when it's the other way around, nothing happens to said corporations.Welcome to America! Would you like the capitalist schlong in your mouth now or later?
    Reply
  • kcorp2003
    Well that was a stupid move by him. but he was still employed at the time he downloaded it, which means he was allowed to do so and AMD has nothing to do with this or there's no evidence that the information was ever provided to AMD. If he had a good lawyer he could have gotten away with this. Correct me if i'm wrong but usually if you work for a company with secretive information they do a security search you before you leave?
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    The data he prob stole was from the Intel Atom and AMD took a look at it and said, if we design our chips in the future around this, we will surely go bankrupt no thanks. LOL
    Reply
  • Murissokah
    If these "chip design documents" were for x86 processors, its quite obvious AMD has not accessed them.
    Reply
  • ringzero
    Parsian"36-year Biswamohan Pani old has pleaded guilty of stealing chip..."Folks, for the sake of professionalism, please proofread your articles.
    I have a years 9 child old who would do a better job than are they currently.
    Reply
  • nebun
    even with stolen information AMD is still struggling....what a shame
    Reply
  • buddhabelly34
    ringzeroI have a years 9 child old who would do a better job than are they currently.Irony at it's finest.
    Reply
  • buddhabelly34
    buddhabelly34Irony at it's finest.Oh jeez... its*** HAHAHAHAHA
    Reply