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Title: Former Intel Engineer Sentenced for Stealing Trade Secrets for
Microsoft

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/17/11232...

After leaving a nearly 10-year position as a product marketing engineer at
Intel, Varun Gupta was charged with possessing trade secrets. He was facing a
maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of
supervised release, according to Oregon's U.S. Attorney's Office. Portland's
KGW reports: While still employed at Intel, Varun Gupta downloaded about
4,000 files, which included trade secrets and proprietary materials, from his
work computer to personal portable hard drives, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon. While working for Microsoft,
between February and July 2020, Gupta accessed and used information during
ongoing negotiations with Intel regarding chip purchases, according to a
sentencing memo. Some of the information containing trade secrets included a
PowerPoint presentation that referenced Intel's pricing strategy with another
major customer, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of
Oregon in a sentencing memo. Intel raised concerns in 2020, and Microsoft and
Intel launched a joint investigation, the sentencing memo says. Intel filed a
civil lawsuit in February 2021 that resulted in Gupta being ordered to pay
$40,000. Tom's Hardware summarizes the trial: Oregon Live reports that the
prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Narus, sought an eight-month
prison term for Gupta. Narus spoke about Gupta's purposeful and repeated
access to secret documents. Eight months of federal imprisonment was sought
as Gupta repetitively abused his cache of secret documents, according to the
prosecutor. For the defense, attorney David Angeli described Gupta's actions
as a "serious error in judgment." Mitigating circumstances, such as Gupta's
permanent loss of high-level employment opportunities in the industry, and
that he had already paid $40,000 to settle a civil suit brought by Intel,
were highlighted. U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio concluded the court hearing
by delivering a balance between the above adversarial positions. Baggio
decided that Gupta should face a two-year probationary sentence [and pay a
$34,472 fine - before heading back to France]... The ex-tech exec and his
family have started afresh in La Belle France, with eyes on a completely new
career in the wine industry. According to the report, Gupta is now studying
for a qualification in vineyard management, while aiming to work as a
technical director in the business.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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