Former Intel Engineer Pleads Guilty To Stealing Itanium Secrets After Jumping Ship To AMD

Employers look for a lot of qualities in new hires: smarts, an impressive resume, technical skills, and hard workingness are some that often float to the top of the list. Apparently, someone forgot to tell Biswamohan Pani that "willingness to commit massive IP theft" wasn't a major selling point before he showed up at his new job at AMD with $200 to $400 million worth of Intel's deepest, darkest Itanium processor details in tow.

The actual dirty deed went down back in 2008, but Pani only pleaded guilty to the 5 counts of wire fraud last Friday, Reuters reports. As the story goes, Pani left Intel at the end of May, but stayed on the payroll until June 11 to use up some accrued vacation time. Rather than relaxing and unwinding during those two weeks, however, Pani landed himself a gig at AMD while still on the Intel payroll, then got busy downloading Itanium's design and manufacturing documents before being kicked out of Chipzilla's systems.

Unfortunately for Pani, Intel caught on pretty quickly, and AMD fired the new hire when the charges where filed in November 2008 -- less than six months after Pani started with the company. (Ironically, Pani's LinkedIn page still lists him as a Senior Staff Engineer at AMD.) According to the indictment, Pani planned on using the Itanium secrets to help him move up the ranks at AMD. AMD had no idea Pani was pilfering documents and isn't charged with any wrongdoing, but Pani's on a mighty big hook for his actions; he faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the five counts, with the sentencing due August. 8th.

Crime doesn't pay, kids.

~ Brad Chacos 

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