Source: Office of United States Attorneys
PORTLAND, Ore.– Varun Gupta, 44, who previously lived and worked in Oregon, pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing trade secrets taken from his previous employer.
According to court documents, from July 2010 to January 2020, Gupta was employed as a product marketing engineer for an American technology company headquartered in California, with its largest concentration of facilities and employees located in Oregon. The company is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, supplying semiconductor products to companies globally.
As part of his employment, Gupta signed an agreement prohibiting him from disclosing, retaining or making unauthorized copies of proprietary information or trade secrets without authorization from the company. Throughout his employment, Gupta had access to valuable and protected information including pricing structures and strategies and product development and manufacturing capabilities. To secure this information, the company used multiple layers of protection.
In early January 2020, Gupta announced his intent to resign and take a job with a domestic technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. While still employed at the company in Oregon, Gupta downloaded approximately 4,000 files, many of which contained trade secrets and proprietary materials, from his company-issued computer to personal portable hard drives.
Between February and July 2020, while employed by the company in Washington, Gupta possessed and accessed his previous employer’s trade secrets and proprietary information without authorization. Gupta accessed information related to customized product design and pricing for significant purchases of computer processors, which Gupta used, as a representative of the Washington company, during head-to-head negotiations with his previous employer.
On December 26, 2024, Gupta was charged by criminal information with possessing stolen trade secrets.
Gupta faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He will be sentenced on August 12, 2025, by a U.S. District Judge.
This case was investigated by the FBI. It is being prosecuted by William M. Narus, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Geoffrey A. Barrow, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, and Anand B. Patel, Senior Counsel for the Criminal Division.