Silicon Valley Engineer Convicted in Trade Secrets Case

A Silicon Valley engineer accused of stealing trade secrets from Marvell Technology was convicted of 5 felony charges in a case that has been unfolding in federal court in San Jose, California, for more than 6 years. In a decision made public May 8, a U.S. district judge convicted the man of five counts related to the trade secrets theft but cleared him of four other charges.

The man is scheduled to be sentenced in August. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison. A grand jury indicted the man in 2005, charging him with exploiting his position as an engineer with Netgear, a Marvell customer, to gain access to Marvell tech secrets. During trial, prosecutors alleged he downloaded a host of confidential materials from Marvell onto his laptop when he moved from Netgear to Marvell rival Broadcom in 2005. The man, prosecutors alleged in court papers, went on a downloading spree of proprietary and trade secret materials from the Marvell Extranet that had no legitimate explanation. The collection of tech secrets was found on a computer when FBI agents raided his Belmont home in June 2005.