Passwords, personal emails, five download sessions, and a forensic exam still underway
Two former business owners stayed on as employees after selling up. Then the data downloads started.
New Zealand's Employment Relations Authority has sent a confidential information dispute to the Employment Court, finding the case too complex and the stakes too high for the Authority to resolve alone.
The determination, issued on October 13, 2026, centres on a post-acquisition employment arrangement that went wrong fast. After selling their business, two former owners agreed to stay on under 12-month fixed-term employment agreements. Those agreements included clauses protecting the company's confidential information, including non-disclosure obligations.
In June 2026, the employer discovered that one of the former owners had downloaded a large volume of company data onto local file storage and an external hard drive - on at least five separate dates between April and June 2026. Some of that data had been emailed to personal email addresses. The second former owner, the determination notes, had logged onto the company's VPN from two unmanaged devices.
The former owners acknowledged the downloads. They confirmed that one of them had downloaded the data and that some of it had been emailed to the other. But they maintained they had not disclosed any of the company's information beyond that, and they agreed to submit their devices to a forensic examination.
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