Cisco thieves banged up

Two Cisco accountants are facing three years inside for their part in a million dollar share scam.

At the hearing, former Cisco employees Geoffrey Osowski and Wilson Tang admitted that they got into Cisco Systems' San Jose system and transferred large quantities of Cisco stock to their personal accounts.

The pair discovered a weakness in Cisco's internal security and transferred almost 100,000 shares over to themselves in December 2000. The indictment included a further accusation that another 100,000 shares had been moved to other brokerage accounts.

Osowski, ex-financial analyst at Cisco, and Tang, previously one of its accounting managers, were fired from the company in February after it reported suspect trading activity to the FBI.

Around $5m of shares were cashed in by Tang and Osowski who invested their riches in items including a Mercedes and jewellery.

The deal struck with federal prosecutors resulted in each getting locked up for 34 months, a forced forfeit of $5m which the US government had already seized and assets including the car removed from their possession.