A former Hewlett-Packard Co. vice president faces up to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets from his former employer, IBM.

Atul Malhotra, 42 of Santa Barbara, California, was the HP vice president for imaging and printing services and was fired from his job in September 2006.

Malhotra formerly was the director of IBM global printer sales between 1997 and 2006. Two months before he moved to HP, he requested and received an internal memo titled “IBM Global Services, CC Calibration Metrics,” which was marked “IBM Confidential” on each page, according to court records.

The authorities said a pricing coordinator for Armonk, New York-based IBM informed the defendant that, “given the sensitive nature of the material, please do not distribute.”

Two months later, in May, he became an HP vice president. The authorities claim he e-mailed the IBM document to an HP senior vice president, who is not named in the filing, on July 25, 2006. The subject line said “For Your Eyes Only.” He is accused of performing the same act with another HP senior vice president two days later.