A former Cisco Systems vice president was ordered to pay almost $27 million in restitution after he pleaded guilty to stealing from his former employer.

Robert Gordon, a Stanford Law School graduate and once a promising Silicon Valley executive, was convicted in 2002 of wire fraud and insider trading in connection with embezzlement. He was sentenced to 66 months in prison.

Gordon's conviction stemmed from a couple of schemes. In one, he used his position to transfer Cisco-owned stock and other funds to a fraudulent account he named "Cisco Systems, Inc., Bahamas." He sold the embezzled shares and, with the proceeds, made stock trades using insider information.

He also fraudulently persuaded Cisco to provide $15 million to a startup called Spanlink. Gordon obtained a $5 million return on that investment, which he kept for himself.

What this means to you: This conviction was entered before the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which increased the penalties for wire fraud and inside trading. The courts have no sympathy for white-collar criminals and are willing to throw the book at them.

U.S. v. Gordon, 05 C.D.O.S. 21, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals