By: Aaron Kim, ITMG Insider Threat Analyst
A top lawyer counseling one of Ocado’s co-founders “panicked” before seeking to destroy evidence rather than hand it over to the online supermarket, a court heard.
Raymond McKeeve ordered an IT manager at a firm set up by Jonathan Faiman to ‘burn’ messages to stop them falling into Ocado’s hands during a corporate espionage probe. At the time, Faiman was embroiled in a legal dispute with Ocado, which accused him of using confidential company information to launch his rival venture Today Development Partners. The case was settled in June last year. It ended a legal battle between Fairman and current Ocado co-founder Tim Steiner, who grew up together. Ocado is now pursuing McKeeve for contempt of court of the destruction of the files.
In court, McKeeve apologized for his “serious error of judgement” but said he should not be found guilty of crimes he is accused of committing. McKeeve said he “panicked” when making the “burn” instruction and insisted the deleted materials did not contain any highly sensitive or confidential information about Ocado.
David Cavender, who is representing Ocado told the court, “McKeeve’s actions, as a solicitor and officer of the court, are unprecedented. We have been unable to find any case where a solicitor has acted this way”.
Ocado, which claims to be the ‘victim’ in the case, has said it is pursuing McKeeve’s alleged contempt as a matter of justice. It has rejected McKeeve’s claim he wanted to protect the identity of his wife and claimed that he wanted to ‘destroy material’. Cavender told the court, “Whatever his motive was, he acted intentionally”.
The case is ongoing.
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