Legal & Courts  October 17, 2014

Former Cargill employee denies stealing trade secrets

A former Cargill Inc. employee accused of stealing documents containing trade secrets before he took a position with competitor JBS USA (Bovespa: JBSS3) contends he did not commit theft and has since returned the materials to Cargill.

Cargill, a privately held Delaware corporation that operates a meat packing plant in Fort Morgan, filed its lawsuit in August against former executive Jason Kuan in U.S. District Court in Denver. Kuan, formerly of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, once worked as vice president and general manager for Cargill Case Ready Canada.

Cargill alleges that Kuan downloaded hundreds of confidential company files onto an unauthorized external hard drive July 7 before resigning from his job Aug. 1 to lead JBS’ new Case Ready Division. Kuan was first offered a position with JBS in late June and accepted a position as president of JBS Case Ready on July 31.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Ways to thank a caregiver

If you have a caregiver or know someone who has been serving as a primary caregiver, March 3rd is the day to reach out and show them how much they are valued!

Employed with Cargill since 1994, Kuan had signed confidentiality agreements with the company. Cargill has accused Kuan of violating the Colorado Uniform Trade Secrets Act and has asked a judge to order him to stop working for JBS during the litigation as well as to forbid Kuan from disclosing its trade secrets to JBS.

Kuan contends he did not steal the documents, and that he would periodically backup documents from his work computer’s hard drive onto an external device due to previous equipment failures, according to court documents filed this week.

A Cargill representative had asked Kuan to return the documents the same day he resigned. Kuan said Aug. 5 that he would be traveling outside Canada but would return the documents when he returned to the country. He ended up returning the documents Aug. 22, the same day he was served with the lawsuit.

“Kuan subsequently discovered a few additional Cargill documents in his possession, which were promptly returned to Cargill,” the court filing states. “Kuan has returned all Cargill documents and materials.”

Kuan did not know that he was violating company policy when he downloaded the documents, according to the court filing. He also contends that the confidentially agreement are not enforceable contracts “because they lack consideration under Canadian law.”

The files contained Cargill’s strategic plans, customers’ plans and financials as well as presentations on capital investments, plant layout, project spending, staffing plans and other information, according to the lawsuit. The information “is not publically available, and all of it was subject to efforts by Cargill to maintain its secrecy,” the lawsuit reads.

Attorneys for Cargill and JBS, a subsidiary of Brazilian meatpacker JBS S.A., declined to comment. A JBS representative declined to talk about the case, saying the company does not generally comment on pending litigation.

Cargill spokesman Mike Martin has said the company aims to “take all the appropriate actions to protect Cargill proprietary information.”

 

A former Cargill Inc. employee accused of stealing documents containing trade secrets before he took a position with competitor JBS USA (Bovespa: JBSS3) contends he did not commit theft and has since returned the materials to Cargill.

Cargill, a privately held Delaware corporation that operates a meat packing plant in Fort Morgan, filed its lawsuit in August against former executive Jason Kuan in U.S. District Court in Denver. Kuan, formerly of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, once worked as vice president and general manager for Cargill Case Ready Canada.

Cargill alleges that Kuan downloaded hundreds of confidential company files onto an unauthorized external hard…

Sign up for BizWest Daily Alerts