The secretary who attempted to sell Coca-Cola’s trade secrets to PepsiCo last summer was sentenced today to more than eight years in prison.
The perpetrator of the trade secret theft, Joya Williams, had faced up to 10 years in prison on the single conspiracy charge in a failed scheme to sell Coke’s trade secrets to rival Pepsi for at least $1.5 million.
U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester departed from federal sentencing guidelines (which would have recommended 5 years) and said to the court that he was meting out a longer sentence because, “This is the kind of offense that cannot be tolerated in our society”… and that “I can’t think of another case in 25 years that there’s been so much obstruction of justice.”
Commentary: While this was a very straight-forward case and a very obvious conviction, we have to admit that we were surprised that the judge imposed as stiff a sentence as he did. In part, our surprise is simply because most other judges in the country fail to impose extended prison terms for what some people feel is a ‘victimless’ crime unless it involves national security issues.
Want a firsthand example of a directly analogous situation? In an almost identical case, consider last week’s sentencing of Edward Grande in Bridgeport CT for his conviction of stealing Duracell’s trade secrets around its AA battery technology and emailing them to Duracell’s two largest competitors in hopes of personal economic gain. His sentence? Five years probation.
Hmmmm…. memo to potential trade secret criminals: if you are thinking about pursuing a dastardly life of corporate espionage and crime, it’s better to live in Connecticut than Georgia. Better yet, just don’t do it – as companies (and judges) are getting tougher on it for the most part.
