Former Senior Manager Pleads Guilty to Stealing the Home Depot’s Trade Secrets
December 12, 2009
ATLANTA, GA – GUILLERMO MARTINEZ, 47, of , Cumming, Georgia, pleaded guilty today in federal district court to a Criminal Information that charged him with stealing trade secrets from his former employer, The Home Depot.
FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Greg Jones said, “Intellectual property related cases are serious criminal cases with high dollar stakes. The FBI understands the corporate concerns and the potential damages caused by such thefts and considers itself well suited to investigate and enforce these laws.”
According to Acting United States Attorney Yates and the information in court: MARTINEZ was employed at The Home Depot’s headquarters as a Senior Manager, Product Engineering, and was responsible for assisting the company’s vendors in preparing to sell products to the company. As a Senior Manager, MARTINEZ had access to the Home Depot’s confidential information and other trade secrets, including pricing and profitability spread sheets and documents relating to product line reviews.
The evidence showed that beginning in January 2008, MARTINEZ was assigned to assist a potential local vendor of The Home Depot. The vendor was subsequently invited by The Home Depot to participate in a product line review. A product line review involves potential vendors making presentations of their products, their packaging and their marketing ideas. It also involves the submission of the potential vendors’ prices.
The Home Depot makes its buying decisions for a particular product line based on the product line review presentations of its various vendors.
From around May 2008 and continuing until around July 2008, MARTINEZ began supervising the local vendor’s presentation to The Home Depot as if he were a high-level employee of the vendor. In an effort to have the vendor gain an advantage over its competitors during the product line review, MARTINEZ provided the vendor with trade secrets belonging to the Company. Specifically MARTINEZ gave out confidential and proprietary pricing information, including the price that the Company was paying the vendor’s competitors for the products that the vendor wanted to sell to the Company.
MARTINEZ provided a document titled “Wire Devices: RFP Summary,” which was
marked at the bottom as “Proprietary & Confidential to The Home Depot,” and which
contained a summary of the vendor’s line review of competitor’s price quotes.
MARTINEZ also provided a binder containing the line review presentation submitted to the Company by a competitor of the vendor. In addition, during this same time,
MARTINEZ was negotiating an employment agreement with the vendor. The Home Depot fully cooperated in the investigation of this case.
Sentencing is scheduled for February 3, 2010, at 10 a.m, before United States District Judge Willis B. Hunt, Jr. This case is being investigated by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Glenn D. Baker is prosecuting the case.
For further information please contact Sally Q. Yates, Acting United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney’s Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.
5 Steps to Happy Clients
December 12, 2009
Every week I spend at least five hours on the phone interviewing my client’s customers. Most of this research is intended to help my clients understand their customer base and increase customer satisfaction and drive sales. There are tremendous benefits to this research that go beyond helping my customers serve theirs better. Their advice contains valuable recommendations that anyone can use to stay more customer focused. Here are five ways you can stay on top of the sales skills customers value most:
1. Be ProactiveWhen I ask my clients customers about the most important assets a salesperson can have, they often mention a proactive approach. This applies to any area of the salesperson’s company that serves the customer; from the customer service department to billing.
When things go wrong it becomes the ultimate opportunity to show them that what you promised in the first place is what they will get. You build trust is more easily when a problem is solved fast rather than if there are never any problems at all. And trust isn’t just built by responding to problems, it could just be a question that needs to be answered. Each customer wants to feel like they are the most important person on your list.
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Small businesses tell of their microeconomic woes
December 12, 2009
More than a dozen small-business owners offered anecdotes Thursday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills about their struggles trying to stay afloat amid the worst economic downturn in generations. Seated around a rectangular table on the fifth floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the business owners discussed credit problems and stringent government regulations that are hampering their operations.
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In neighborhood beefs, they bring the muscle
December 12, 2009
The reaction: More than a dozen you-go-girl missives piled up, with no dissents. Participants were soon marveling at the rare surge of neighborhood unity. “Within 20 minutes, everybody was like, hell, yeah,” resident John Weaver said.
Then came the response from former White House press secretary Ron Nessen, who lives within sight of the store in Montgomery County: “We have retained a lawyer highly experienced in such cases. He is gearing up to defeat your effort. I assume you have hired a lawyer to represent you in what will be a long, nasty, and expensive zoning battle.”
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