AMD Employee Charged With Stealing Intel Secrets

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An AMD employee that used to work for Intel is charged with stealing trade secrets from his former employer worth $1 billion. Prosecutors say AMD had no knowledge of the crime and did not benefit from the stolen information.

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts say 33-year-old Biswamohan Pani downloaded confidential documents from the chip maker's California headquarters while he was on vacation and actually working for AMD. Prosecutors say AMD had no knowledge of Pani's actions and did not benefit. But they say the information Pani downloaded was worth more than $1 billion in research and development costs, and included details about methods for designing microprocessors.
 
I've seen stuff like this happen first hand..

Got a call from HR that we we just let go an employee. Need to disable his account.. OK. Found out he was still logged into the Terminal Server Farm. I shadowed his session and witnessed him sending himself mass amounts of company documents..

He would go into a folder, select all, right-click, sent to--> mail recipient, types in his personal email, SEND. Move on to the next folder..

I took screenshots and everything..

That went over well with HR I tell ya..

Riley
 
Is it me or do these bone head maneuvers get more outrageous each time?

I wonder if I could make some money selling guides on moderation to these morons.

Next, we'll find out he stole from AMD as well in hopes of creating his own startup. :rolleyes:
 
So grand theft is anything over $500, what does $1 billion net you? is there a whole new catagory of crime like "Holy Shit, this guys grand kids will need to serve life in prison for what he did"
 
So grand theft is anything over $500, what does $1 billion net you? is there a whole new catagory of crime like "Holy Shit, this guys grand kids will need to serve life in prison for what he did"

nah, he'll probably get a couple months in some resort, just like the other white collar criminals
 
I've seen stuff like this happen first hand..

Got a call from HR that we we just let go an employee. Need to disable his account.. OK. Found out he was still logged into the Terminal Server Farm. I shadowed his session and witnessed him sending himself mass amounts of company documents..

He would go into a folder, select all, right-click, sent to--> mail recipient, types in his personal email, SEND. Move on to the next folder..

I took screenshots and everything..

That went over well with HR I tell ya..

Riley


Thats some bad company management. Accounts should always be disabled BEFORE a termination of an employee.


Anyways, this doesn't surprise me, AMD is starting to play dirty or at least, the employees are getting desperate.
 
Thats some bad company management. Accounts should always be disabled BEFORE a termination of an employee.

That's what I do here, but it sucks though when the management doesn't make the time to inform the employee before they find out their account is disabled. They would IM me and say "hey ___ doesn't work. Is there something wrong with the server?" and I would feel like crap and not know what to say to them. I'm not a confrontational person.
 
That's what I do here, but it sucks though when the management doesn't make the time to inform the employee before they find out their account is disabled. They would IM me and say "hey ___ doesn't work. Is there something wrong with the server?" and I would feel like crap and not know what to say to them. I'm not a confrontational person.

At that point I would tell them to speak to their manager. Not a good feeling at all....
 
Remember the Coke/Pepsi case? Here's a timely precedent to ponder.

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Two former Coca-Cola employees were sentenced Wednesday to serve federal prison terms for conspiring to steal and sell trade secrets to rival Pepsi.

Joya Williams, 42, of Norcross, Ga., received an eight-year prison term, while Ibrahim Dimson, 31, got a five-year term, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Crime didn't pay.
 
Can't believe a company as large as Intel would let this happen. You'd think they would have a very definitive termination policy. On the other hand, he might have be stealing info for quite a while before he was let go.
 
"amd didn't know about this nor did they benefit".

YEAH!!.... RIGHT..... and im not smoking weed right now too hahahaha:D:D:D
 
Thats some bad company management. Accounts should always be disabled BEFORE a termination of an employee.


Anyways, this doesn't surprise me, AMD is starting to play dirty or at least, the employees are getting desperate.
I don't blame you for making this statement because the article posted by Steve is too short. However, the truth is he was still an Intel employee at that time:

According to the indictment, Pani gave notice to leave Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and told his superiors he was using up about a week of vacation while looking for a job at a hedge fund.

In reality, according to the indictment, he had taken a job at Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and, while using up vacation time at Intel, was downloading valuable trade secrets.
http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2008/11/03/daily49.html?ana=yfcpc
 
You just got canned….. You find you still have a login…. Revenge seems to be a pretty good motive to me…

A few years ago I had a web contract go bad with an international client that screwed me on the payment for my work, but still to this day I have a working FTP login to their site… I thought of revenge but decided to just let it go instead.

I still kind of hope these leaked documents somehow made/make their way to AMD… it seems they need all the help they can get to compete properly in the CPU game again. In the long run consumers will suffer from a non-competitive AMD.

And hey, this is Intel… what’s another billion?
 
Lol please guys, cut out the fuckin Intel homerism. They are a HUGE company. Saying AMD is "playing dirty" is extreme naivety in thinking that Intel is as clean as a virgin in the business world.
 
Disregard pretty much everything I just said....
I should have read the article before commenting on it..

My Bad..
 
Biswamohan Pani = OWN3D! Prolly wanted to sell the info or make $$$....American Greed @ its finest.

:rolleyes:
 
"amd didn't know about this nor did they benefit".

YEAH!!.... RIGHT..... and im not smoking weed right now too hahahaha:D:D:D
Umm, if amd did know about it they would cover their eyes, put some ear plugs in. Corporate intellectual property theft is very serious. If AMD benefited in the slightest they would have to pay immense royalties.
 
Or you know... just regular greed. Oh that's right making fun of America is cool.

At least until January 20th, after which all will be sweetness and light because the oceans will recede, the Earth will heal itself, and the world will love America again...

/
 
Prosecutors say AMD had no knowledge of the crime and did not benefit from the stolen information.

This is painfully obvious...:p
 
Umm, if amd did know about it they would cover their eyes, put some ear plugs in..

Nope, they would not just bury their heads in the sand. The first thing they would do if a former Intel employee offered to sell or give them trade secrets is call Intel and/or the feds. You have to be very proactive in such situations to avoid even the appearance of improper involvement.

Corporate intellectual property theft is very serious. If AMD benefited in the slightest they would have to pay immense royalties.

So very true. And then the criminal proceedings and fines would pile on top of that. AMD could possibly even cease to exist over such a situation.
 
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