Wednesday, March 7, 2018

A Very Weird Tale of Corporate Espionage and Murder and More Corporate Espionage

Apotex claims longtime chemist went rogue and stole drug secrets...

Apotex Inc., the generic-drug giant founded by murdered billionaire Barry Sherman, has been waging a year-long court battle against an ex-employee who was fired for allegedly stealing millions of dollars’ worth of pharmaceutical trade secrets from a laboratory computer—in the hopes of launching a rival company in his native Pakistan...

Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife, Honey Sherman, 70, were discovered strangled inside their North York mansion nearly three months ago, the victims of what police have labeled a “targeted” double homicide. Since then, detectives have said little else about the high-profile murders...

News of the lawsuit comes at the same time as Apotex tries to defend itself against similar allegations of corporate espionage. In a court action launched last July in the United States, Sherman’s company is accused of using sex, lies and USB drives to illegally obtain valuable trade secrets from the world’s largest generic drug-maker, Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. As Maclean’s reported last month, a Pennsylvania judge denied Apotex’s attempt to throw out the sensational lawsuit, which accuses a former Teva executive of leaking confidential information to her boyfriend—then-Apotex CEO Jeremy Desai. Desai abruptly resigned in January, six weeks after the Shermans were killed, “to pursue other opportunities.” more

Further insights... Business Espionage: The Employee Competitor… and what to do about it.