A Cisco engineer who was suing the networking outfit claiming it had monopolised the business of servicing and maintaining Cisco equipment, has been charged by US authorities with hacking.

Peter Alfred-Adekeye, left Cisco in 2005 to form two networking support companies. He was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver on May 20, 2010, while giving a deposition to Cisco attorneys in his civil case. He has been charged with 97 counts of hacking and faces 10 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine if convicted on the charges.

The mounties were tipped off by the American authorities who seemed to know that he was meeting Cisco at Vancouver's Wedgewood Hotel. The Department of Justice claim he used a Cisco employee's user ID and password to download software and access Cisco's restricted website. Alfred-Adekeye has founded two nonprofit efforts, the Road to Entrepreneurial Leadership and The African Network and he's also the head of two startups. His arrest appears to be connected to his Cisco suit.

Multiven, which is owned by Alfred-Adekeye sued Cisco in December 2008, accusing the company of monopolising its business. It claims Cisco forced owners of routers, switches and firewalls to buy its SMARTnet service contracts in order to get regular software updates and bug fixes. SMARTnet miffs more than a few Cicso customers who think the outfit should be providing basic bug fixes and software updates free of charge as Microsoft or Apple do.

Alfred-Adekeye claimed in court that Cisco and the US Department of Justice colluded to arrest him during his deposition. Cisco claims it had nothing to do with it.