Maniar will be deported after his time in jail.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: An Indian American engineer, Ketankumar Maniar, 38, aka Ketan Maniar, who formerly lived in Mahwah, New Jersey, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing trade secrets from two global medical technology companies based in northern New Jersey
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced that Maniar previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano to an information charging him with two counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets for his own economic benefit.
Maniar, an Indian national, has been in custody since his June 2013 arrest. Judge Pisano imposed the sentence on Thursday in Trenton federal court, according to a press release. He will be deported after his time in jail.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
C.R. Bard Inc. (Bard), based in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD), based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, are among the world’s leading manufacturers of medical technologies. From November 2004 until his resignation on January 22, 2011, Maniar worked as an engineer at Bard’s Salt Lake City facility and was responsible for developing molding processes and specifications for catheters, ports and other medical products. From February 2012 until his resignation on May 24, 2013, Maniar worked as a staff engineer at BD’s Franklin Lakes headquarters, where he helped manufacture pre-fillable syringes and pen injectors.
Through his work at Bard and BD, Maniar was able to steal secret information related to the companies’ products, including Bard’s development of the first implantable port used for power injection of pharmaceutical drugs throughout the body. Maniar also had access to secret information related to a self-administered disposable pen injector still under development by BD and not yet available for commercial sale.
Maniar admitted he stole Bard and BD trade secrets that he kept after his resignation from those companies. Maniar downloaded numerous files containing Bard or BD product information from his work computers onto multiple computer storage devices, including external hard drives and thumb drives. He also used his work email accounts at Bard and BD to forward trade secrets to his personal email accounts.
On June 3, 2013, pursuant to court-issued federal warrants, FBI agents searched Maniar’s rental car and the New Jersey hotel room he stayed in while planning a move back to India. Agents seized – among other things – at least one hard drive containing Bard and BD trade secrets.