Canada blocks extradition of Cisco suspect

Alfred-Adekeye had sought to enter the U.S. to testify in the civil case but was not allowed to, so a special session of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California was held in Vancouver on May 20, 2010. Arresting him while he testified at that session violated normal legal practice, McKinnon said.

Alfred-Adekeye once worked for Cisco but left to form his own companies in Silicon Valley, including Multiven, a provider of service and support for networking gear. Multiven sued Cisco in 2008, alleging it forced Cisco customers to buy SMARTnet service contracts from Cisco in order to get software updates.

In a statement on Friday, Cisco said the U.S. Secret Service had issued its criminal complaint against Alfred-Adekeye after nearly two years of investigation. "Ultimately this case is a matter between U.S. and Canadian governmental authorities," Cisco said.

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com