Former Broadcom Engineer Sentenced for Stealing Networking Chips Trade Secrets

Peter Kisang Kim, a former engineer at Broadcom, was sentenced to eight months in prison for stealing trade secrets from Broadcom, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced Sept. 20. A Ben Lomond, California, resident, Kim in May pleaded guilty to three counts of stealing trade secrets to help his new company's business prospects. Fifteen other counts of trade secrets theft were dismissed in connection with his sentencing. Following his incarceration, Kim will serve a three-year supervised release term.

Broadcom makes and sells networking chips used in industries such as enterprise and data center networking. Kim was with the company for over 20 years, working until July 2020 as a principal design engineer and on various projects, including the Trident family of chips used in high-volume data centers, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Before leaving the company, Kim copied over 500 Broadcom files, processing the trade secrets over the Trident family of chips. Broadcom stored the trade secrets on nonpublic document repositories, requiring nondisclosure agreements to be executed before documents could be shared outside the company. Kim received annual trainings on maintaining the confidentiality of the secrets.

Kim took the trade secrets to his new employer, a startup based on China where he worked as an integrated circuit design verification director. Kim told the government the company was seeking to become a top chip designer focused on China's domestic market.