In June this year, Intel laid off over 100 of its employees in California. Just a month later, 4000 more were announced, with people across California, Oregon, Texas, and Arizona all losing jobs. Now, one of those employees, a staff member for 11 years, has been accused of stealing almost 18,000 files on their way.
This is all according to a court filing on behalf of Intel (via Oregon Live). After being notified on July 7, then leaving the company on July 31, the employee (Mr Jinfeng Luo) reportedly connected a NAS (network attached storage) to take 18,000 files from their Intel account and laptop, many of which Intel claims “were Intel Top Secret or contained Intel Confidential Information.”
The defendant reportedly held an engineering position “with access to a wide range of Intel confidential information,” and Intel claims it reached out to Luo multiple times after the data transfer triggered an investigation, but “Luo has refused to respond.”
Intel details its attempts to reach out from August to October this year. That includes emails, phone calls, and getting in contact with people claiming to be Luo’s mother and sister (via Luo’s emergency contact information), who then handed Intel Luo’s new number.
The new number reportedly went unanswered when called, and Intel reached out to Luo’s emergency contact again, “but the individual who answered the phone claimed not to speak English despite a prior conversation with Intel Human Resources.” Finally, multiple letters were sent to multiple addresses to get in contact with Luo, which Intel claims went unresponded to.
With this lawsuit, Intel is aiming for restitution of at least $250,000. This figure can go up at trial depending on what has been done with the reported data, and includes the payment of Intel’s attorney fees.
The lawsuit also argues for Luo to account for the data, and is pushing for an order directing Luo “to temporarily surrender his personal devices to Intel for the purpose of inspection and removal of any Intel files that may remain.”
This is an active lawsuit, and is subject to any changes made in the discovery process. Luo has been officially summoned via the United States District Court and must respond within 21 days of the October 31 filing.
