Cisco accused of orchestrating engineer's arrest

21.04.2011
Cisco Systems orchestrated the arrest of Multiven founder Peter Alfred-Adekeye last year in order to force a settlement of Multiven's antitrust lawsuit against Cisco, a Multiven executive said on Wednesday.

Multiven, an independent provider of service and support for networking gear, sued Cisco in 2008, alleging that the company monopolized the market for its software. Cisco countersued, charging that Alfred-Adekeye hacked into Cisco's computers and stole copyrighted software.

In May 2010, , on 97 counts of intentionally accessing a protected computer system without authorization for the purposes of commercial advantage, according to his arrest warrant. He could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine if convicted. The arrest came to light only this week after reported it.

After 28 days, he was released on bail, but he has not been able to leave Canada since then, said Deka Yussuf, an executive vice president of Multiven in charge of marketing and public relations. Multiven is based in Redwood City, California, but Alfred-Adekeye lives in Zurich, she said.

The case has been stalled for the past 10 months because the U.S. Attorney's office has not been able to present the evidence required to extradite Alfred-Adekeye, Yussuf said. Alfred-Adekeye's lawyers believe the U.S. officials may have misled Canadian authorities about the need to arrest and extradite him, and they initiated hearings that are going on now in Vancouver to investigate this possibility, she said.

After the arrest last May, Cisco and Multiven . But Cisco is behind the entire criminal case, according to Yussuf.