The former CEO of a company that was sold to San Diego’s Qualcomm for $180 million pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal money laundering charge.
Sanjiv Taneja, 60, of Cupertino, was one of a group of people charged last year for their roles in the sale of a microchip technology start-up known as Abreezio. Taneja was the firm’s CEO.
Though their sales pitch to Qualcomm represented the technology as being invented by a Canadian grad student, prosecutors said it was not disclosed that the student was related to another defendant.
That man, Karim Arabi of San Diego, then a vice president of research and development at Qualcomm, prosecutors allege, hid his involvement in Abreezio and the development of its patented technology.
In addition, Arabi’s employment agreements held that his work product belonged to Qualcomm, leading the defendants to shield his role with Abreezio.
Taneja’s plea agreement indicates he was actively involved in obscuring that connection. Once Qualcomm began investigating the transaction, Arabi told Taneja to delete their email correspondence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors say the defendants laundered the money they received from the Abreezio sale through foreign real estate purchases and interest-free loans.
Taneja pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering related to a $1.5 million transaction involving proceeds of the sale to Qualcomm, which initially netted the Abreezio group $150 million in cash.
He is slated to be sentenced in October. Arabi and another defendant are awaiting trial.
– City News Service
