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HP Vice President admits stealing from IBM

by on14 July 2008

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Could go down for a decade


A former HP Vice President could be eating prison porridge for the next 10 years after admitting nicking trade secrets from his former employer, IBM.

Atul Malhotra, 42, of Santa Barbara, California admitted one charge of stealing trade secrets and will be sentenced in late October. In March 2006, while still employed at IBM, Malhotra received "trade secret" information about calibration metrics. Each page was reportedly marked "IBM Confidential."

As Vice President of imaging and printing services, he mailed the confidential IBM information to two senior vice presidents at HP after he had been working there for four months.  Apparently, HP fired him and reported the incident to law enforcement and to IBM.

Apparently, HP was fuming that Malhotra was in direct violation of HP Standards of Business Conduct, that it decided to grass him to the coppers. Of course, there were fewer problems when Board Members ordered detectives to go through people's rubbish bins and phone records to find a leak.

That was not seen as a direct violation of HP Standards of Business Conduct until it was made public.
Last modified on 14 July 2008
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