An engineer who worked for C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR) and Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) who confessed to stealing trade secrets from the companies was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison.
Ketankumar "Ketan" Maniar pleaded guilty in May before Judge Joel Pisano of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey to 2 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets "for his own economic benefit," according to federal prosecutors.
Maniar faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count. Pisano sentenced him to 18 months, ordering him to pay $32,454 in restitution to BD and forfeit the computers and drives used in his crimes.
The FBI arrested Maniar last June as he prepared to flee the country to his native India. He worked for Bard from 2004 to 2011 as an engineer in Salt Lake City, before moving to New Jersey to take a position at BD in February 2012. He resigned from his position as a staff engineer at BD’s Franklin Lakes, N.J., headquarters in May 2013.
"Through his work at Bard and BD, Maniar was able to steal secret information related to the companies’ products, including Bard’s development of the 1st implantable port used for power injection of pharmaceutical drugs throughout the body. Maniar also had access to secret information related to a self-administered disposable pen injector still under development by BD and not yet available for commercial sale," according to a press release. "Maniar admitted he stole Bard and BD trade secrets that he kept after his resignation from those companies. Maniar downloaded numerous files containing Bard or BD product information from his work computers onto multiple computer storage devices, including external hard drives and thumb drives. He also used his work email accounts at Bard and BD to forward trade secrets to his personal email accounts."
"At BD, we take very seriously the protection of our confidential information and trade secrets," the company said in a statement. "We have worked closely with the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office with their investigation and enforcement of this matter and are pleased with the outcome and closure of this case."
BD said it will not pursue its civil lawsuit against Maniar "given the satisfactory resolution of the government’s criminal prosecution."