A federal prosecutor revealed on Wednesday that a fired Bristol-Myers-Squibb Co. employee, Shalin Jhaveri, 29, stole trade secrets from the drug maker in a deceit to establish his own pharmaceutical business in his native India.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., the world's No. 15 drug maker by revenue, is the maker of blockbuster blood thinner Plavix, the world's second-best-selling drug.

The employee had been fired from the firm on Tuesday. It is reported that if he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, if convicted.

The accused belonging to Syracuse, was charged in U. S. District Court with stealing trade secrets and proprietary information from the New York-based company while taking part in a management training program.

The thefts of "hundreds of the company's standard operating procedures" took place over an extended period, "but the most active period was in the last few weeks", said Assistant U. S. Attorney Stephen Green.

However, both the company and law enforcement was cognizant of his anti social activities for the past several weeks.

Jhaveri was on an immigrant worker's visa and had been a technical operations associate at Bristol since November 2007.