Meta Sues Ex-VP For Stealing Trade Secrets And Sharing Them With His New Employer

• Meta has sued a former vice president for stealing information about Meta employees, suppliers, and vendors
• The accused has been charged with five counts
• If proven guilty, he'll have to pay damages and give up the benefits that he earned by stealing those secrets

Meta is suing its former vice president of infrastructure for allegedly stealing data from the company. The stolen data includes human resource reports, supplier information of the company, and details about the company's data centers.

The accused has been identified as Dipinder Singh Khurana, also known as T.S. Khurana, who had been with the company for 12 years.

However, last year in June, he suddenly left his job and accepted a position as a VP of supply chain operations in a new startup. Note that the accused person's new company, his new employer, hasn't been named in the lawsuit.

Soon after he left, Meta's internal monitoring team found that something was amiss. They realized that during his notice period, Khurana uploaded large amounts of data to his personal Google Drive and Dropbox accounts. He also uploaded some of the files directly to a folder named after his new company.

Then on February 29, Meta filed a lawsuit against Khurana in a California state court for his brazenly disloyal" conduct.

Five charges have been filed against Khurana, the accused:

• Breach of conduct
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Breach of the duty of loyalty
• Unjust enrichment
• Violation of California's computer crime laws

Meta is rather enraged that despite receiving a hefty compensation and the prestigious title of a VP, Khurana betrayed his former employer. Interestingly, a former Google employee, too, was very recently charged with stealing company trade secrets.

Meta takes this kind of egregious misconduct seriously. We will continue working to protect confidential business and employee information.Meta spokespersonWhat Exactly Did Dipinder Khurana Steal?The stolen data includes human resource documents consisting of payroll details, recruitment files, compensation, and performance data.

Khurana's position within Meta gave him access to a lot of confidential data that only a few selected people could get their hands on. There was also a list of employees labeled as Top Talent".

After investigation, Meta found that at least eight of the employees mentioned on the list had left their jobs for a position at Khurana's new company. Some more have been contacted for a position in the new company but it's unclear whether they accepted.

Khurana also stole information about suppliers and vendors, Meta's supply-chain employees, and other business operation data.

According to reports, Khurana manipulated his subordinates into sharing confidential information. This includes Meta's agreement and pricing details with a supplier of computer hardware and a pricing agreement with a supplier of a particular chip.

These pieces of information are very crucial since they give the company (the new employer) a competitive advantage in the market - and that's a disadvantage for Meta.

Meta wants Khurana to not only pay for damages but also give up any benefit (including financial compensation) that he may have received by sharing the stolen secrets. However, the allegations are yet to be confirmed in court.

The post Meta Sues Ex-VP For Stealing Trade Secrets And Sharing Them With His New Employer appeared first on The Tech Report.