With an ever-increasing competitive market, soft drink companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola are taking strict measures to protect their respective trade secrets. Recently, two Coca Cola workers were sued in the court on charges of spying for the rival Pepsi.
Joya Williams and Ibrahim Dimson, two employees of the Coca Cola co., are booked in jail on charges of offering rival Pepsi samples of the Coca Cola product. The third defendant in this case is Edmund Duhaney.
The entire conspiracy is based on FBI’s undercover case, which developed from a letter received by Pepsi.
How it happened - See how the case unfolds
· Pepsi receives a letter in May 2006 with Coca cola trade secrets.
· The letter was mailed using an alias ‘Dirk’, by one of the Coca cola employees Ibrahim Dimson.
. Coke is informed by Pepsi regarding this conspiracy. Coca Cola tips off FBI, and FBI agent goes undercover.
· FBI undercover agent receives a 14 page Coca Cola document marked clearly as ‘Classified/Highly Restricted.”
· Dimson or ‘Dirk’ asked for $10,000 for the initial papers.
· Once this was done, agents went in for further deals with ‘Dirk’
· Agent verified the document with Coca-Cola and the company agreed that they were genuine documents that were being leaked by someone.
· Once the final deal was sealed, agent followed Dirk or Dimson to his destination, which turned out to be the co-defendant’s house.
The agent(s) arrested Dimson along with the accomplice Joya Williams (Coca Cola company secretary).
Consequences of stealing from the Company
Both, Joya Williams and Ibrahim Dimson, have been arrested and are going to be severely penalized for their crimes. U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester is taking care of this particular case. Williams has been fired from the Coca Cola company.
However, her attorney ‘Singer’ will ask the judge for a lenient punishment for Williams since she has a daughter to support. Assistant District Attorney will probably not reduce Williams’s sentence since she lied right on stand.
As Williams has a clear past with no criminal records, the judge might after all reduce her sentence. Whatever happens, Williams still has to pay $40,000 in restitution. Williams’s attorney will also enter the fire incident that destroyed Williams’ apartment in suburban Norcross nearly 90 minutes after the guilty verdict in pre-sentence report. Also involved with this case is Edmund Duhaney, whose sentencing as well as trial will take place later.
But, Dirk faces a dark future. Ibrahim Dimson faces three to five years in prison depending on his conduct. Also, he has to pay the $40,000 restitution.
This case has sort of improved the relations between the rivals. Even though Pepsi and Coca cola agrees that there is a brutally fearsome competition between them, Pepsi agrees that the competition should be fair.
