An engineer once Cisco had sued his former employer, alleging that monopolized the business of service and maintenance of Cisco, has been accused by U.S. authorities piracy.
Peter Alfred-Adekeye, who left Cisco in 2005 to form two companies of network support, has been charged with 97 counts of intentionally accessing a protected computer system without authorization for purposes of commercial advantage, according to a warrant. He faces 10 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000 if convicted of the charges.
Alfred-Adekeye was abruptly stopped by the RCMP 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 the Wedgewood Hotel in Vancouver.
U.S. Justice Department charged Alfred-Adekeye use a Cisco employee ID and password to download the software and web access to restricted Cisco, according to the Canadian arrest warrant issued in the case.
The case is still under the seal of the U.S. authorities try to extradite Alfred-Adekeye. His arrest had been reported until this week when the Vancouver media reports of his extradition hearing. Order of Alfred-Adekeye U.S. arrest was issued on May 19, 2010 – the day after he began his statement in Canada – U.S. by 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 efforts designed to promote entrepreneurship – Road to the Entrepreneurial Leadership and the African Network – and is the head of two new companies. In one of his websites are described as “a successful entrepreneur and innovative British royal descent of Africa.”
One company of Alfred-Adekeye, Multivan, sued Cisco in December 2008, accusing the company of monopolizing the business of servicing equipment company Cisco. Cisco forced the owners of equipment such as routers, switches and firewalls to buy SMARTnet service contracts in order to get regular updates and software error correction, Multivan said. By providing updates and bug fixes for customers only and not to third SMARTnet, Cisco banned independent service companies in your team, Multivan course.
SMARTnet Service is a hot topic with some clients who feel that Cisco must provide basic arrangements of errors and software updates for free as Microsoft or Apple do.
Alfred-Adekeye Neither could be immediately or Multivan reached for comment Tuesday, but according to the Vancouver Sun, said his lawyer in court Monday that Cisco and the U.S. Department of Justice according to arrest him for his statement.
In an email, a spokeswoman for Cisco, said Tuesday: “We strongly disagree with most of the content of [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 offers service and support network equipment from multiple vendors. Pingsta itself as an online platform for companies to hire engineers and cloud-based shopping experience of the network on a pay per use.
The companies settled their civil suit in July 2010, just months after the arrest of Alfred-Adekeye is. Both sides dropped their claims and businesses pay their own legal costs.