The defendant, Maged Mostafa, was general manager of Pliteq Inc.’s Dubai subsidiary, a member of the company’s corporate executive council and its vice-president of corporate development and marketing.
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An employment agreement containing a strict confidentiality clause governed Mostafa’s relationship with Pliteq. It specifically prohibited the disclosure of each category of information ultimately misappropriated by Mostafa, who also acknowledged the sensitivity of his position by later signing a stand-alone confidentiality agreement that expressly limited his use of the information to “reasonably completing his or her employment or contractual duties.”
The evidence at trial revealed that Pliteq terminated Mostafa in November 2023 after discovering that, following a series of unfavourable performance reviews, he had effected a massive download of Pliteq’s highly confidential trade secrets to his personal accounts.
The data included proprietary information about Pliteq’s factory and manufacturing processes, factory design and equipment, and “recipes” for its products; consultants’ identities; customer lists; and sales and product testing information.
Mostafa refused to return the data or confirm its destruction. He also threatened to disclose or sell the information to Pliteq’s competitors. And when Pliteq repossessed the company laptop in Mostafa’s possession, he...
As a doctor and practice owner, I urge caution in expanding Pennsylvania’s False Claims Act. One reason I left the traditional insurance model was the constant threat of chargebacks and retroactive...