A former Cisco Systems Inc. executive has been charged in an elaborate, multimillion-dollar fraud case, the San Jose Mercury Newssaid in its online edition last night.
The
Mercury News
said Mr Robert S. Gordon, fired by Cisco earlier this month, is accused of trying to siphon money from Cisco and its partners in a scam involving phony stock deals, offshore bank accounts and a shell company.
Mr Gordon (42) appeared before US Magistrate Judge Ms Patricia Trumbull in San Jose federal court yesterday.
Mr Gordon is accused of placing more than 30,000 shares of stock of Internet Security Services Group - a company bought by Cisco - into a Bahamas-based shell company that he created called Cisco Systems, which has no connection with San Jose's Cisco.
Citing an FBI affidavit, the Mercury Newssaid Mr Gordon then sold the stock for more than $5 million, which he allegedly used for another scam.
It said Mr Gordon persuaded a Cisco business partner, a start-up company called Spanlink, to pour $10 million into a bogus venture capital firm he created.
Cisco is the top maker of gear that helps power the Internet.
Last week it said it plans to cut 8,500 jobs or 17 percent of its work force, take charges of as much as 3.7 billion, and report third-quarter results far below forecasts.