What you need to know
- A former Intel engineer, Varun Gupta, admitted that he stole thousands of documents from Intel before moving to a job at Microsoft.
- Gupta and Intel have agreed to a settlement for an undisclosed amount of money.
- There is a penalty of at least $100,000 if Gupta violates the terms of the settlement.
- Intel sued Gupta in February 2021, alleging that the documents were used to gain an unfair advantage in pricing negotiations of Xeon processors.
Former Intel engineer Varun Gupta settled with Intel regarding the theft of thousands of confidential documents. Gupta worked for Intel for 10 years but left for Microsoft in January 2020. In February of this year, Intel accused him of stealing trade secrets before he left for a job at Microsoft. Now, Gupta has admitted his wrongdoing and settled with Intel.
Gupta was accused of taking almost 3,900 documents, which included trade secrets related to Intel's pricing structure and strategies of its Xeon processors. An investigation by Intel and Microsoft claimed that Gupta downloaded the documents and accessed them multiple times during his employment at Microsoft. Intel's lawsuit claimed that the documents gave Microsoft an unfair advantage in negotiating the prices of processors.
Oregon Live reports that Gupta has since acknowledged taking documents from Intel before leaving for Microsoft. He has reportedly agreed to "a confidential settlement payment" to Intel.
The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed, but if Gupta violates its terms, he'll have to pay at least $100,000 as a penalty.
Gupta's attorney, Courtney Angeli, said that Gupta was not available for comment. Angeli also did not respond regarding if Gupta is still employed by Microsoft.
Microsoft did not respond to questions regarding Gupta's employment with the company, though it did assist in Intel's investigation for the case.
