Veteran 10-year Intel employee sentenced for corporate espionage

An Intel employee was sued by the company in 2021 for allegedly stealing trade secrets and sending them to Microsoft. That former Intel employee has now been sentenced.

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Varun Gupta, a former Intel employee of 10 years, was sued by the company in 2021 for taking confidential documents to his new employer, Microsoft, in 2020. These documents included approximately 4,000 data files that featured critical company information such as Intel's pricing strategies, rival business analysis, and more.

Gupta had access to these files at Intel as he was an Intel product marketing engineer. Prior to his transition to Microsoft, Gupta copied the files over to a portable storage device and then uploaded them to a Microsoft-issued work laptop.

The lawsuit against Gupta was settled in June 2021 and included an undisclosed payment to the firm. Furthermore, Gupta was suspected of using confidential information to negotiate with Intel as a Microsoft representative, where he was attempting to obtain a contract for processor purchasing.

Assistant US Attorney William Narus had argued for an eight-month jail sentencing for the illegal use of trade secrets, but Gupta's attorney, David Angeli, argued that Gupta had already paid Intel $40,000 in the company's civil lawsuit against him, and that Gupta's reputational damage caused by the lawsuits meant he was never going to work in the technology industry again.

Gupta was later sentenced to eight months' probation and an additional $34,472 fine for repeated violations. From here, Gupta intends to work in the French winemaking industry as he is currently studying vineyard management and has relocated himself and his family to France.