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May 14, 2003
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Brent Alan Woodard, 32, of Oakland, California, was indicted today by a federal grand jury on three counts of Theft of Trade Secrets in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1832.
According to the Indictment, Mr. Woodard is alleged to have stolen trade secrets stored on computer backup tapes from his former employer, Lightwave Microsystems, Inc., San Jose, California, and attempted to sell them to JDS-Uniphase, a competitor of Lightwave, with offices in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1832 is 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. However, any sentence following conviction would be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and would be imposed in the discretion of the Court. An indictment simply contains allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Mr. Murphy must be presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
The prosecution is the result of a investigation by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The investigation was overseen by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office. Matt Parrella is the Assistant U.S. Attorney in the CHIP Unit who is prosecuting the case. Lightwave Microsystems, Inc., and JDS-Uniphase cooperated with the FBI in the investigation.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.
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