AMD is taking legal action against four former employees, including a former vice president and former managers accused of stealing sensitive documents and passing them on to Nvidia.

AMD alleges that Robert Feldstein, Manoo Desai, Nicolas Kociuk and Richard Hagen downloaded over 100,000 files to external drives in the months leading up to their departure from the company and recruiting AMD employees after leaving for Nvidia.

AMD said it examined computers used by former employees and found additional evidence that Desai and Kociuk conspired to misappropriate confidential information and trade secrets.

The company also filed a restraining order against the former employees, ordering them to preserve all AMD property and preserve their computers so they can be used for forensic evaluation.

We still don’t know what Nvidia learned by looking over AMD’s shoulder, but this is starting to look like an embarrassing episode for both companies.

So far the four employees are facing civil lawsuits, no criminal charges yet.

More here.