Former Bristol-Myers Employee Sentenced

RICHARD S. HARTUNIAN, United States Attorney, Northern District of New York, announces that SHALIN JHAVERI, age 30, a citizen of India and former resident of Syracuse, New York, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Syracuse. He previously pled guilty to stealing trade secrets from his former employer, Bristol-Myers Squibb. The court sentenced him to time served to be followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and forfeit property he used to commit the crime, which includes a laptop computer, external hard drive, and related electronic equipment. JHAVERI had been in continuous federal custody since his arrest on February 2, 2010, and served over one year in jail. Deportation proceedings will begin immediately to deport JHAVERI from the United States. As his offense and sentence constitute an aggravated felony under U.S. immigration laws, JHAVERI will hereafter be inadmissible to the United States.

JHAVERI had been employed as a technical operations associate at the Bristol-Myers facility in Syracuse and stole trade secrets while participating in the company’s management training program. JHAVERI holds a PhD from Cornell University and began his employment with Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2007.

In entering his guilty plea, JHAVERI admitted the following: (1) Bristol-Myers was, at all relevant times, an international pharmaceutical company engaged in the research, development and marketing of a variety of pharmaceutical, medical and related products throughout the world, and who maintained a major facility in Syracuse, within the Northern District of New York; (2) while participating in Bristol-Myers’ management training program, he devised a plan to steal and convert to his own use trade secrets of Bristol-Myers; (3) using a variety of means, primarily downloading, transferring, and electronically storing trade secret data and files, he stole and exercised control over trade secrets of Bristol-Myers; (4) in so doing, he used means and techniques designed to disguise his activities and evade detection; (5) during the period January 22 to January 26, 2010, he communicated with an individual he believed to be an investor interested in financing a pharmaceutical facility in JHAVERI’s native India that JHAVERI had planned to start, and later transferred Bristol-Myers trade secrets to that investor.

In carrying out his scheme, JHAVERI had flown to Chicago where he met with the investor and later secretly met him again in a Syracuse hotel room, to which JHAVERI had brought Bristol-Myers trade secrets. JHAVERI was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during that meeting.

This prosecution resulted from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Syracuse Resident Agency. Further questions may be directed to Assistant United States Attorney Stephen C. Green, the prosecutor handling the case, at (315) 448-0696, or Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan at (315) 448-0672.

This article was sponsored by Police Leadership Books.