Drugmaker Employee in NY Charged with Trade Theft
From Associated Press (February 4, 2010)
SYRACUSE, N.Y.--A fired Bristol-Myers-Squibb Co. employee stole
trade secrets from the drugmaker in a plot to launch his own
pharmaceutical business in his native India, a federal prosecutor
said Wednesday.
Shalin Jhaveri, 29, of Syracuse, was charged in U.S. District Court
with stealing trade secrets and proprietary information from the
New York-based company while taking part in a management training
program. He was fired Tuesday.
Employed on an immigrant worker's visa, Jhaveri had been a
technical operations associate at Bristol since November 2007. If
convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.
A clerk at the federal court in Syracuse said a defense attorney
has not been assigned to Jhaveri, who was ordered held without
bail.
The thefts of "hundreds of the company's standard operating
procedures" took place over an extended period, "but the most
active period was in the last few weeks," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Stephen Green.
"Both the company and law enforcement have been aware of his
activities for the past several weeks," he added.
The monetary value of the documents, which were mainly in
electronic form, was not disclosed.
In the training program, Jhaveri was rotated through various
departments, and the department he was in most recently was one of
the more sensitive areas of the company, Green said.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., the world's No. 15 drugmaker by revenue,
is the maker of blockbuster blood thinner Plavix, the world's
second-best-selling drug.
Posted: February 2010
