For those who don’t remember,
the Peter Principle said each employee will rise to his or her own level of
incompetence. Meet David Sindelar.
You might think that a guy who
was hired as a Vice President of Corporate Development and soon thereafter
promoted to Vice President for Sales-Western Region for a successful company
wouldn’t have too much to beef about. But something apparently turned
Sindelar against his employer, Preco Industries, Inc., a Kansas-based firm
that designs, manufactures and sells industrial equipment.
One day, after Sindelar had been
on the job in Kansas for about three years, Preco received a letter from one
of its competitors, Edale, located in the United Kingdom. Edale was writing to
let Preco know that it had received a copy of Preco’s Sales Order Forecast,
a valuable trade secret to be sure. As if that weren’t enough, a couple of
weeks later, another UK competitor, Rolt Engineering, sent a letter to Preco
containing not only a copy of Preco’s Sales Order Forecast, but design and
specification information on Preco’s Solid Phase Pressure Forming System.
This was also a valuable trade secret.
Well, there were only so many
people who had access to that information, and Sindelar was on the very, very
short list. So short that he was promptly charged with theft of trade secrets
under the Economic Espionage Act, and pled guilty in a plea bargain.
He was sentenced to five years probation, $16,600 in restitution, and a
$10,000 fine.
Incidentally, he never made it
to England.
© Copyright 2002 by Steven
Fink, All Rights Reserved. The text of this publication, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
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