Washington:
A 42-year-old Indian scientist has been charged with stealing secret "recipes" from a US drug company and turning them over to his brother-in-law back home o set up a competing company.
Prabhu Mohapatra worked for Frontier Scientific Inc, a North Logan company that supplies chemicals for research and drug discovery.
Last month, he emailed proprietary chemical "recipes" to his brother-in-law in India who was setting up a competing company, according to a complaint filed in US District Court.
The charge against Mohapatra marks the first time an industrial espionage filing has been made against a defendant in Utah, where the company is based, the FBI announced
yesterday.
Frontier says no other company in the world produces one of those chemicals in large quantities. A co-worker saw Mohapatra, of North Logan, creating files containing the recipes on his laptop and emailing them, Salt Lake City-based Desert News quoted the complaint as saying.
The co-worker reported the activity to Frontier management. Confronted by company executives, Mohapatra admitted he was involved and apologized, court documents show.
Mohapatra followed up with an email to the chief operating office saying, "I realised I may have done something wrong. Even if you lay me off or put me in jail I will not do anything to hurt FSI."
The complaint also shows Mohapatra emailed his brother-in-law's company saying, "I will lose my job and even could face jail time if you make and sell any product that is
currently listed in FSI's catalog."
Federal prosecutors charged Mohapatra with theft of trade secrets, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine. Prosecutors did not seek detention and Mohapatra was released from custody, but surrendered his passport.