Mark Anderson - Sacramento Business Journal

An El Dorado Hills technology worker accused of stealing trade secrets with military applications and offering them to foreign buyers for six figures in cash entered a guilty plea in Sacramento Friday, prosecutors said.

Allen Cotten, 53, pleaded guilty to theft of trade secrets in U.S. District Court and admitted to a two-year scheme to steal and sell microwave technology, the local U.S. Attorney's office said in a news release. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Pings said Cotten worked for Genesis Microwave Inc. in El Dorado Hills, and admitted that beginning in February 2004 he began to steal plans, designs, parts and specifications for components known as logarithmic video amplifiers. The technology has military applications for radar jamming, guidance, countermeasures and locating enemy signals during combat.

Cotten sold trade secrets and offered them for sale to foreign governments and foreign military contractors through February 2006, prosecutors said; evidence and Cotten's statements indicated he sold or was seeking to sell parts and information for a total amount of $250,000.

The case was the product of an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security.

Cotten is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Edward J. Garcia May 16 at 10 a.m.