Former Oregon engineer charged after keeping 4,000 files of semiconductor trade secrets

PORTLAND, Ore (KOIN) – A former Oregon engineer pleaded guilty on Thursday to possessing semiconductor trade secrets from a previous employer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon announced.

From July 2010 to January 2020, Gupta worked as a product marketing engineer for a technology company headquartered in California, with a large number of facilities in Oregon, according to court documents.

Authorities said the company is “one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers,” that supplies semiconductor products around the world.

Throughout his employment, Gupta had access to valuable information such as pricing structures, strategies, and manufacturing capabilities, the Department of Justice said, noting the company used several layers of protection to secure the information.

He also signed an agreement banning him from disclosing, retaining, or making unauthorized copies of the proprietary information, officials said.

In early January 2020, Gupta resigned from the position and took a job at a domestic tech company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, authorities said. However, while he was still employed by the Oregon company, Gupta downloaded approximately 4,000 files containing trade secrets from his company-issued computer to personal hard drives.

Gupta accessed the trade secrets from his former workplace, which he used as a representative of the Washington company during negotiations with his previous employer, authorities said.

In December 2024, Gupta was charged with possessing stolen trade secrets and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $25,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Gupta will be sentenced in August 2025, officials said.