Jolene
Rector managed to get hold of numerous pieces of proprietary information owned
by R.P. Scherer, Inc., in Florida. RPS is a leading international developer
and manufacturer of drug, supplement, cosmetic and recreational product
delivery systems. Its proprietary advanced drug delivery systems are supposed
to improve the efficacy of drugs by regulating their dosage, rate of
absorption and place of release.
RPS
customers include global and regional manufacturers of prescription and
over-the-counter pharmaceutical products, nutritional supplements, cosmetics
and recreational products such as paint balls.
This
information Rector obtained – from a friend, Steven Snyder – included such
things as the company’s proprietary gel formulas, fill formulas, shell
weights, and experimental production order data. She knew the information was
proprietary, confidential and much of it was RPS trade secret information.
She told Snyder to mail her the information so she could use it in her
new job with an RPS competitor in Nevada, and he complied.
Then, she had a
conversation with the Production Manager of Nelson Paint Ball, Inc., in
Kingsford, Michigan, in which she told him that she had gelatin formulas and
she was willing to sell the lot for $50,000.
She said that she had obtained the formulas while working at RPS.
She went on to explain that she was then living in Nevada and had been
working for Soft Gelcaps West, but had recently been fired. After he hung up
with her, the Production Manager contacted his company’s Executive
Vice-President with this information.
A few days
later, she spoke directly with the EVP and elaborated upon her offer. She said
she had 65 paint ball color formulas and 108 gelatin formulas for sale. She
was quite open in explaining that the information had come from her days at
RPS, apparently thinking that would enhance the value of the trade secrets.
The Executive
Vice President of Nelson Paint Ball then contacted the RPS corporate counsel
office and blew the whistle on Rector. RPS
asked Nelson Paint Ball to request Rector to fax some of the data to have it
evaluated. Nelson Paint Ball cooperated by contacting Rector and asking her to
fax some pages of the fill and gel formulas, maintenance instructions,
paintball facility layout map and the pilot plant notebook. It took her only
ten minutes to fall into the trap. Nelson Paint Ball faxed the information to
RPS who then contacted the FBI.
Nelson Paint
Ball cooperated with the FBI in setting up a sting on Rector. The next time
she spoke to Nelson Paint Ball, she advised the EVP that she had already sold
part of the documentation to an unnamed buyer. However, she still had some of
the original documentation in her possession and was still willing to sell it
for $25,000.
The next time
they spoke, the EVP asked her to come to Michigan, but she balked, too smart
for that old trick. She didn’t want to come to Michigan just to deliver
stolen goods, she explained, as the FBI was tape-recording her call:
Yeah, well on an illegal thing no...(laughing), because you know if I’m
doing something that’s not ill.., not legally put down as like I’m
doing a job...Yeah, then I’m setting myself up to get caught or
whatever...you know wherever I go I’m setting myself up...but if
there’s a contract and a job, you know a job contract, then it’s not a
set up it, you know I’m basically doing a legal work...because it
actually has...it doesn’t have nobody’s name on it , it is my
stuff.…
Then, when the EVP asked her what she had done with the all of the
stuff in the book from the pilot plant, she explained to him and to the
listening FBI that she cleverly rewrote it all in her own handwriting it and
that she destroyed the book so that there were no names. Then, trying the old
high-pressure ruse, she said that the company that she had sold half of the
pharmaceutical formulas to previously was also interested in buying the paint
ball formulas, so Nelson Paint Ball had better act fast if they wanted the
goods. What did she have left to sell? A maintenance manual for Japanese
Sankyo encapsulation machine, approximately 106 gel formulas, and some 60
paint ball formulas. Oh, and where did the information come from, she was
asked? RPS, she replied.
Now the FBI
stepped in and an undercover agent met with Rector, claiming to have been sent
by the EVP as a go-between. With a hidden video camera rolling, she turned
over a maroon colored, three-ring binder containing machine maintenance
instructions, paint ball and gel formulas, and list of shell weights all
belonging to RPS. The undercover FBI agent then gave her a check for $25,000.
But,
immediately following the exchange, the FBI notified her that the meeting had
been a sting. However, even
though she was told that she was not under arrest (yet) and she was free to
leave, she consented to be interviewed. She confessed, and also said that she
had burned a lab notebook containing experimental RPS products and notes while
in Kentucky.
Rector and
Snyder were arrested and pled guilty to theft of trade secrets in the first
prosecution under the EEA in the Middle District of Florida.
On January 25, 2002,
Jolene Rector was sentenced to 14 months confinement, half of which will be
served in a community correctional center, two years supervised release, and a
$200 assessment.
Steven Snyder's
sentence was almost identical: 10 months confinement, half of which will be
served in a community correctional center, two years supervised release, and a
$200 assessment. [i]
[i] Department of Justice
sources, grand jury presentment, website and news releases and interviews
with the United States Attorney's office in Tampa, Florida.
© 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
permission from the publisher or author.
Excerpt from the chapter: 
