EMC Accuses Ex-Workers Of Divulging Secrets

EMC Corp.'s corporate headquarters in Hopkinton.

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EMC Corp. of Hopkinton is accusing more than 30 former employees of taking company secrets to a direct competitor based in the Silicon Valley.

In a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, the technology giant accuses former salesperson Chadwick Johnson of Austin, Texas, of illegally taking confidential and sensitive EMC information to technology startup Pure Storage of Mountain View, Calif.

The 17-page complaint alleges that more than 30 high-performing employees have left EMC under suspicious circumstances to join Pure Storage.

“Johnson’s unlawful conduct is part of a larger campaign by Pure Storage and numerous former EMC employees now employed by Pure Storage, to compete unfairly with EMC by, among other things, misappropriating EMC’s confidential information and property, unlawfully soliciting EMC’s customers, and raiding EMC of its valuable employees, all in an effort to increase Pure Storage’s presence in the marketplace at the expense of EMC,” EMC counsel Paul Popeo wrote.

Pure Storage said in a statement that it has a strong policy against the use of any third party confidential information.

“Pure Storage has not -- and will not -- engage in campaigns, public or private, that promote unfair competition or business practices. Simply put: it is not in our DNA,” said Scott Dietzen, PureStorage CEO, in a statement. “While we’re serious about taking the market by storm, we are only interested in doing so the old fashioned way – by outperforming our competitors.”

EMC sued another ex-employee last month, accusing him of misappropriating sensitive materials upon accepting employment with Pure Storage.