Indian sentenced to year in prison for stealing trade secrets

Boston (PTI) - An Indian ex-employee of
Bristol-Myers-Squibb, who admitted stealing trade secrets from
the drug manufacturer for his planned business venture in
India, was awarded a year in jail on Friday, a sentence he has
already served.
Shalin Jhaveri, 30 is expected to be deported to India
soon.
US District Judge Norman Mordue sentenced Jhaveri to
his time served in a New York jail.
Mordue also imposed a USD 5,000 fine and ordered
Jhaveri to forfeit the computer equipment he used to steal the
formulas.
Federal immigration agents took Jhaveri into custody
and would transport him to a detention centre where he will
face deportation proceedings in 10 days.
Jhaveri sobbed in court as he apologised for betraying
the trust of the company and his family, the Syracuse
Post-Standard reported that
"I have failed in my most significant purpose of being
on this earth, and I am ashamed," Jhaveri said.
Jhaveri had pleaded guilty last year to a one-count
charge of theft of trade secrets. He was arrested in February
2010.
A Syracuse, New York resident, Jhaveri worked as a
technical operations associate in Bristol-Myers' management
training programme.
He had worked at the company since November 2007 at
its Syracuse facility, where it develops and manufactures
biotechnology medicines for clinical and commercial use.
While he was employed, Jhaveri stole the company's
trade secrets and devised a plan to put them to his own use.
At the time of his arrest, he was meeting with an
investor who was willing to finance Jhaveri's business venture
planned in India.
Jhaveri had taken more than 1,300 documents from the
company starting in late 2009.
He downloaded the information to his laptop and
portable hard drives over the course of several days and
shared these trade secrets with his potential investor.
The trade secrets included formulas for producing a
drug under development at Bristol to treat a rare and deadly
form of skin cancer.
In December 2009, Bristol-Myers' corporate security
had notified its in-house computer security experts that
Jhaveri was taking confidential material.
Jhaveri, who came to the US eight years ago on a
student visa, has a doctorate in chemistry from Cornell
University.