Goldenberg and his attorney declined to comment, but at Creston Electronics, Jeff Singer, communications director, called what Goldenberg did, to which he admitted in his guilty plea, “outrageous.”

From what is known, says Singer, it appears that Goldenberg managed to get the passwords and log-ins for Web-based e-mail access for four employees at Sapphire, reading Sapphire e-mail on a daily basis for about seven months. Eventually Goldenberg was simply forwarding it to his own e-mail account.

But the day came when an employee at Sapphire, whose business function puts it in close contact with Crestron corporate and consumer customers for high-end access control systems for video, lighting and climate control, did notice her e-mail was being forwarded to an outside account.

Marla Suttenberg, owner of Sapphire Marketing, could not be reached for direct comment, but in a written statement this week she indicated she immediately notified local law authorities and let them gather evidence, and improved the e-mail security.

The revelation that Goldenberg was the source of the e-mail break-in was particularly devastating because Suttenberg knew Goldenberg and his family personally. Prior to working at AMX, Goldenberg had been a client of Sapphire’s buying Crestron products. Crestron says Goldenberg applied for a job at Crestron in 2007 but wasn’t hired but was hired by AMX.Goldenberg also knew Crestron Electronics executive vice president Randy Klein, who states “the full damage caused by our chief competitor illegally obtaining this information is immeasurable and has seriously impacted our past, present and future business.”