Three former Dell Inc. employees were sentenced Friday to prison terms for stealing about $500,000 worth of computer processors and reselling them.

Their plot was foiled when someone sent an anonymous e-mail informing company founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell of the plot, a lawyer for one of the men said, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Scotty Ray Traw, who was a technical support employee, said he recruited Benito Morales III and Maurice Smith to steal the processors, which they sold on an Internet auction site and through a buyer in California.

Federal District Court Judge Lee Yeakel sentenced Traw to 21 months in prison for conspiracy and selling stolen property. Morales and Smith received a year for conspiracy.

The sentences were at the lower end of a range in federal sentencing guidelines. None of the men had previous criminal records, and Yeakel gave them credit for cooperating with authorities.