Scientist being sentenced in Utah for trade theft

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A sentencing hearing for a scientist who has pleaded guilty in Utah's first industrial espionage case turned on testimony Thursday about the damage to a chemical company.

Prabhu Mohapatra faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on a charge of unlawful access to a protected database.

Federal investigators say the 42-year-old chemist emailed a secret drug recipe from a Utah company to a brother-in-law in India. They say the relative planned to undercut prices charged by Logan-based Frontier Scientific Inc.

The sentencing hearing opened Thursday with the first of a series of company officials taking the stand to testify about the discovery of the trade theft and how much it cost their company.

Court officials said after the hearing concluded Thursday that it would have to wait weeks longer until the judge is able to resume.

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