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Press Release
For Immediate Release November 26, 2001 |
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney Northern District of California 11th Floor, Federal Building 450 Golden Gate Avenue, Box 36055 San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 436-7200 Fax: (415) 436-7234 |
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Former Cisco Systems, Inc. Accountants Sentenced
for Unauthorized Access to Computer Systems to
Illegally Issue Almost $8 Million in Cisco Stock to Themselves |
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Mr. Osowski, age 30, a resident of Mountain View at the time the charges were brought, and Mr. Tang, age 35, a resident of Palo Alto at the time the charges were brought, were indicted by a federal Grand Jury on April 4, 2001. The two were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer and wire fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, one count of computer fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(4), and three counts of wire fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343. Pursuant to plea agreements with the government, Mr. Osowski and Mr.
Tang each pled guilty to one count of computer fraud in violation of Title
18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(4), agreed to the forfeiture of
assets that the government had seized from the defendants (including stock
already liquidated for $5,049,057, jewelry and an automobile), and agreed
to pay restitution in the amount of the difference between $7,868,637
and the amount that the government will recover from the sale In pleading guilty, Mr. Osowski and Mr. Tang admitted that between October
2000 and March 27, 2001, they participated together in a scheme to defraud
Cisco Systems in order to obtain Cisco stock that they were not authorized
to obtain. As part of the scheme, they exceeded their authorized access
to computer systems at Cisco in order to access a computer system used
by the company to manage stock option disbursals, used that access to
identify control numbers to track authorized stock option disbursals,
created forged forms purporting to authorize disbursals of stock, faxed
the forged requests to the company responsible for controlling and issuing
shares of Cisco Systems stock, and directed that stock be placed in their
personal brokerage accounts. The two defendants admitted that the first
time that they did this, in December 2000, they caused 97,750 shares of
Cisco stock to be placed in two separate Merrill Lynch accounts, with
58,250 of the shares deposited in an account set up by Mr. Osowski and
39,500 shares deposited in an account set up by Mr. Tang. In February
2001, they Judge Whyte sentenced the defendants each to 34 months in federal prison, restitution of $7,868,637, and a three year period of supervised release. The defendants will begin serving their sentences on January 8, 2002. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Joseph E. Sullivan of the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Unit is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Lauri Gomez. A copy of this press release and related court documents may be found
on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. ### |
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