By Sharon Gaudin
September 12, 2008 (Computerworld) A former Intel Corp. design engineer has been charged with theft of trade secrets from the chip maker while secretly working for rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Biswamohan Pani was charged in U.S. District Court in Boston in late August.

According to an affidavit filed with the courts, Pani began working at the Hudson, Mass., facility, where Intel does research and product development, in 2003. One of the projects Pani worked on was the design of the Itanium processor.

According to the affidavit, investigators found no reason to believe that AMD was involved in the alleged theft of trade secrets.

"At this point, there has been no evidence that AMD knew that Pani had downloaded Intel's files, had encouraged Pani to do so or that it received those files at all," wrote FBI Special Agent Timothy Russell in the affidavit. "It appears at this point that Pani obtained Intel's trade secrets to benefit himself in his work at AMD without AMD's knowledge."

Michael Silverman, a spokesman for AMD, said in an e-mail to Computerworld that the company is cooperating fully in the investigation. AMD no longer employs Pani.

Intel spokeswoman Claudine Mangano said the company cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. "We're aware of the charges," she added. "Upon learning of the potential issues involving this individual, Intel asked the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate. We will continue to cooperate."

Pani resigned from Intel in late May, saying that he was going to work at a hedge fund and take accrued vacation time until his last official day on June 11, according to the affidavit. However, Pani began working for AMD on June 2, during that vacation period when he was still employed by Intel, according to the affidavit.
Between June 8 and June 10, while working for both chip makers, Pani allegedly remotely accessed and downloaded 13 top secret documents from an encrypted system at Intel. Some of the downloaded documents allegedly include design details on Intel's newest chips.
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