FBI Alleges Intel Employee Stole Secrets Before Leaving to AMD

Biswahoman Pani worked for Intel. Claiming to miss his wife, he requested a transfer from California to Intel’s Hudson facility where she worked. That same day, when the request was granted, Pani turned in his resignation and announced that he’d be taking vacation for his last two weeks at the company. His new job would be with a hedge fund.

But as an FBI document reports, Pani wasn’t going to a hedge fund. He was actually hired to work at AMD. And he spent the next two weeks with his Intel-networked laptop collecting confidential designs.

Pani worked quickly and managed to assemble 13 different “top secret” company files relating to future Intel chips, spanning 100 pages of information along with 19 CAD images of the architecture. When an Intel employee learned that Pani was really heading to AMD, the company called in the FBI to investigate.

Pani claims that the files were collected to aid his wife in her new position at the Hudson facility. He has since been let go by AMD and AMD has been fully cooperative with authorities. There is no evidence that AMD requested or acquired the designs. [Boston]