Sacramento Business Journal - Mark Anderson

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.