Biswamohan Pani, former design engineer for chipmaker Intel, has been charged with stealing sensitive Intel documents while working for rival company AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)The complaint was followed by a search by the FBI of his house in Worcester, Massachusetts in July which found documents including 13 top-secret files with details of future Intel chip designs, PC World magazine has reported.
The FBI’s criminal complaint states that Pani had resigned from Intel in May, saying that he was switching to another company, but that he could continue to work at Intel till June 11.However, he simultaneously started working for AMD on June 2. Having access to Intel’s computer network, he remotely downloaded the secret files, allegedly in order to turn them in to the rival company.
The FBI has ruled out AMD’s involvement in Pani’s conduct, who likely stole the files to pass them off as his own work to advance his career at AMD. California-based AMD no more employs Pani.
Pleading innocence, Pani told CNN that the design files were meant to help his wife who still works with Intel and were not intended for sale. Pani has not been taken into custody, but he has surrendered his passport to US authorities pending charges.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the richest person in the United States for the 15th year in a row. Although Gates tops the list with a personal fortune estimated by Forbes to be about $57 billion, this was down from the $59 billion he was worth last year.
“The fact that the rich are not getting richer means that the economy is locked,” said Matthew Miller, editor of the Forbes list. “Credit is not being extended, there is very little liquidity in the markets and deals can’t get done, so the economy contracts.”
Investor Warren Buffett came in at number 2 with an estimated personal wealth of $50 billion, down from an estimated $52 billion last year, followed in third place by Oracle Corp founder Larry Ellison, who is said to be worth $27 billion by Forbes.
Gates, Buffett and Larry Ellison are followed by Jim Walton (USD 23.4 billion), S Robson Waltton (USD 23.3 billion), Alice Walton (USD 23.2 billion) and Cristy Walton and family (USD 23.2 billion) of Wal-Mart, Michael Bloomberg (USD 20 billion), Charles Koch (USD 19 billion) and David Koch (USD 19 billion) in the top ten.
Google is expected to unveil its first ver of the prototype mobile phone next week, sparking a fierce battle with Apple’s iPhone ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
The handset, known as the Dream, will be made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, and available exclusively on the T-Mobile network in the UK. It is expected to be available in stores as early as November, far ahead of Christmas.
The handset will run Google’s new mobile phone OS, Android. It is thought the phone will have a slide-out Qwerty keyboard as well as a built-in GPS service, and will be capable of running Google’s range of web applications such as its email service Gmail, productivity suites like Google Docs and mapping services like Google Maps etc.. It is also likely to feature Google’s new web browser, you guessed it, Chrome.
