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A federal jury has convicted an Nvidia Corp. engineer on charges of securities fraud, lying to authorities and obstruction of justice.
Atul Bhagat, 29, of Mountain View, was among six of the Santa Clara chipmaker"s employees who were criminally indicted on charges of illegally profiting by using insider information.
Three have struck a plea deal with prosecutors and two are awaiting trial.
"The U.S. attorney"s office has made insider trading one of its priorities .
. . and it"s our hope that the message is going out to the business community that insider trading and securities fraud will be criminally prosecuted," spokesman Matthew Jacobs said yesterday.
The four-week trial ended Thursday after the jury had deliberated nine hours. Bhagat was found guilty on two counts of securities fraud, three counts of making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and obstruction of justice. His sentencing was set for June 3.
The criminal charges were filed as part of a wider SEC investigation of employees and acquaintances who may have illegally profited by using information from an e-mail sent by Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang.