A San Jose jury found an ex-Stanford staffer guilty of replacing medical data in a breast cancer study with bogus information and insults about her boss after she was fired.
Naheed Mangi, 66, worked as a research coordinator for a Genentech-sponsored study at Stanford that was testing an experimental treatment for breast cancer patients, according to federal prosecutors. She started in 2012 and was responsible for tasks like scheduling appointments and entering data.
But about a year later, court records show she was fired for a “work performance issue.” At the time, Stanford staff told investigators that Mangi was “very angry” about her termination.
Staffers took roughly a day to revoke Mangi’s access to the clinical database, and the delay allowed her to replace confidential patient information with false information, insults lodged at her former boss, and “inappropriate comments about some physicians,” court records show.
Stanford researchers said they were able to restore the data, but reported that it cost the university “thousands of dollars.” Mangi wasn’t indicted until 2018.
“Her senseless actions undermined a study into the safety and efficacy of a new treatment for breast cancer patients,” Acting U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Robbins wrote in a statement.
The U.S. Secret Service conducted the investigation. Mangi faces up to 10 years behind bars for intentional damage to a protected computer and accessing a protected computer without authorization. Her sentencing is slated for July.
Mangi’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.