And you thought Fidelity was hardcore

New York based hedge fund research and advisory firm Aksia filed suit in New York State Supreme Court on Thursday claiming two former employees who recently left to join a competitor firm stole confidential and proprietary research reports, templates, investment data and methodologies. Aksia also alleges the pair tampered with business records and deleted electronic information including thousands of emails. According to documents filed by Seward and Kissel on behalf of Aksia the named defendants are Sarah Cole and Corissa Mastropieri. The firm argues that each of the pair is in breach of the confidentiality, non-solicitation agreements and policies outlined in the firm’s Employee Handbook. Aksia alleges the pair worked together starting in November 2009 to take confidential and proprietary information and leave the firm. Through forensic analysis of the company’s computers and servers the firm cites early November internet searches for places to purchase USB flash drives, followed by mass downloads onto such devices as well as remote downloads recording in excess of 2 gigabytes of data. The firm also cites emails to personal accounts that include lists of prospective clients and the pair’s heavy usage of Google chat during the business day, which the firm does not authorize for use on Askia computers. Although the competitor firm that Cole and Mastropieri have joined is named as Albourne Partners, that firm is not listed in the suit. However, amongst the claims the firm is seeking against the pair (including damages to be determined by the court for multiple claims and salary recovery) Askia is asking that the pair be stopped from employment or communication with Albourne.

I would fire the dude who is in charge of the information/IT security policies.

Part-time Crook Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I would fire the dude who is in charge of the > information/IT security policies. I’m pretty sure blocking Gmail or USB ports would not have prevented them from doing this, but the fact that IT tracked all the activity is somewhat impressive.