A former employee of a Boston-area high-tech company pleaded guilty to handing over trade secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.
Elliot Doxer, 43, who formerly worked for Akamai Technologies Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of foreign economic espionage Aug. 30 in U.S. District Court.
Akamai provides technology for delivering content over the Internet using remote or cloud services.
Doxer contacted the Israeli Consulate in Boston in 2006, offering information and asking to be paid, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. An FBI agent posing as an Israeli consular official in Boston contacted Doxer to establish with him a place where he could leave information.
The newspaper Israel Hayom reported that Doxer’s email to the consulate, identified in the FBI agent’s affidavit as “country X,” read: “I am a Jewish American who lives in Boston. I know you are always looking for information and I am offering the little I may have.”
Israel contacted U.S. officials about Doxer’s offer.
Doxer provided information, including data about the company’s customers and contracts, some 62 times over the next 18 months.
Doxer, who agreed to a plea bargain, faces a sentence of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine; sentencing was set for Nov. 30. — jta