TYLER, TEXAS (CN) – High-ranking executives cost Hewlett-Packard as much as $100 million by conspiring to use proprietary information and secretly form their own company to sell flat-panel TVs and monitors, HP claims in a RICO case in Federal Court. HP says the frauds were led by defendant Karl Kamb, its vice president for business development in Japan, who formed the defendant company byd.sign, and allegedly used HP money to develop technology he successfully pitched to HP’s then-CEO Carly Fiorina, without informing HP that it was buying intellectual property that, because of confidentiality and proprietary employment agreements, should have belonged to HP already. HP says the alleged frauds might have continued indefinitely had Kamb’s wife not sued for divorce, and subpoenaed HP for information on byd:sign, which caused the scheme to unravel.
Details here from Courthouse News Service.