Two companies are suing former employees in Las Vegas, claiming they misappropriated confidential and proprietary information for the benefit of their new companies.
One suit was filed in Clark County District Court on July 29 by Abunassar Impact Basketball LLC, which runs basketball camps in Las Vegas and around the country.
The suit was filed against Tony Tucker and his companies FCP LLC and SportsQuest Academy in Richmond, Va.
The suit alleges that Abunassar hired Tucker to assist in its training program in 2008 and that upon his departure from the company, he failed to repay a $28,750 loan.
While employed at Abunassar, the suit says, Tucker had overcharged certain Abunassar clients and kept the extra money for himself; and he "gathered Abunassar’s confidential and proprietary information in order to help start a new company, SportsQuest, which would directly and unfairly compete with Abunassar using Abunassar’s own proprietary information.’’
This information included Abunassar’s business model, client lists, pricing information and information on the schools, teams and players Abunassar worked with, the lawsuit says.
The suit seeks an injunction barring use of Abunassar’s proprietary information and alleges fraud, breach of agreement and other counts.
A message for comment was placed with Tucker.
Another lawsuit was filed in the same court on the same day by tradeshow giant Freeman Decorating Services Inc. of Dallas, which has a big Las Vegas operation.
That lawsuit says that on June 21, Freeman purchased WCP Exposition Services Operating Company LLC and its subsidiaries including Champion Exhibition Services LLC.
The suit was filed against two former Champion employees, Mark Johnson and Margaret Kelley.
The suit says that after Champion was sold, they both went to work for competitor Hargrove Inc. of Lanham, Md., allegedly taking with them confidential Champion information such as client contact lists, details of event specifications and rates.
"Telephone call logs for Johnson’s company-issued telephone reveal that, while he was employed by Champion and later Freeman, he made several phone calls and numerous text messages to Hargrove and several of Freeman’s clients,’’ the lawsuit charges. "Johnson utilized Freeman’s confidential information to benefit his new employer, Hargrove."
The suit says that in one recent incident, Johnson used Freeman’s "confidential information to poach a client from Freeman and sent it to his new employer, Hargrove."
"Freeman also has numerous other contracts at risk," the lawsuit alleges.
Johnson had been vice president of sales, national accounts, for Champion while Kelley was his administrative assistant, the lawsuit says.
In a July 14 press release, Hargrove said Johnson had been appointed executive director of new business development for trade shows.
Hargrove and Kelley couldn’t immediately be located for comment Tuesday.
That suit seeks a temporary restraining order barring the defendants from using Freeman’s confidential information including customer and contact lists.