A Cisco engineer once sued his former employer, alleging that monopolized the business of maintenance and repair of Cisco, has been accused by U.S. authorities piracy.
Peter Alfred-Adekeye, who quit Cisco in 2005 to form two companies, network support, has been charged with 97 counts of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization for purposes of commercial advantage, according to an order arrest. He faces 10 years in prison and the U.S. a $ 250,000 fine if convicted of the charges.
Alfred-Adekeye was stopped abruptly by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver on May 20, 2010, while a statement to lawyers for Cisco in its civil case. A Nigerian citizen and resident of Zurich, Alfred-Adekeye only in town for a few days for the deposit, but the U.S. Justice Departmentalerted the Canadian authorities, telling them to look at Wedgewood Hotel Vancouver.
U.S. Justice Department charged Alfred-Adekeye ID use a Cisco employee username and password to download software and access to restricted website of Cisco, according to the Canadian arrest warrant issued in the case.
The case is still under seal as U.S. authorities seek extradition of Alfredo Adekeye. His arrest had been reported until this week when the Vancouver media reported his extradition hearing. Alfred-Adekeye order U.S. arrest was issued on May 19, 2010 – the day after he began his statement in Canada – U.S. by Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, according to the Order of Canada.
The handsome Alfred-Adekeye has founded two nonprofit effort aimed at promoting entrepreneurship – Road to the Entrepreneurial Leadership and the African Network – and is also the head of two new companies. In one of his websites that he describes as “a successful entrepreneur and innovative British royal African descent.”
One company of Alfred-Adekeye, Multivan, Cisco sued in December 2008, accusing the company of monopolizing the business of maintenance and repair company Cisco. Cisco forced the owners of the arts, such as routers, switches and firewalls to buy SMARTnet service contracts in order to get regular software updates and bug fixes, Multivan said. By providing updates and bug fixes SMARTnet customers only and not to third parties, Cisco banned independent companies service your equipment, Multivan course.
SMARTnet service is a hot topic with some customers, who feel that Cisco must provide solutions based on software fixes and updates for free as Microsoft or Apple do.
Neither Alfred nor Multivan Adekeye could be immediately reached for comment Tuesday, but according to the Vancouver Sun, his lawyer claimed in court Monday that Cisco and the U.S. Department of justice agreed to arrest him during his deposition.
In an email, a Cisco spokeswoman, said Tuesday: “We strongly disagree with most of the content in [Vancouver Sun] article,” adding that “extradition is a matter between the two governments.”
After Multivan sued Cisco, the networking giant filed counterclaims against Multivan, Alfred Adekeye and Pingsta, another company founded by Alfred-Adekeye. Multivan provides service and support for networking gear from multiple vendors. Pingsta itself as an online platform for companies to hire engineers and gain experience in cloud-based networks on a pay-per-use basis.
The companies settled their civil suit in July 2010, just months after the arrest of Alfredo Adekeye. Both sides dropped their claims and businesses pay their own legal costs.