Harsco offices
Harsco Corp. in Camp Hill.
(The Patriot-News, 2008)
Cumberland County-based Harsco Corp. is suing one of its former top executives in federal court, accusing him of corporate espionage for allegedly passing confidential company information to a competitor.
Clyde Kirkwood essentially acted as a mole, Harsco contends in the U.S. Middle District Court complaint it filed this week.
Kirkwood abruptly quit his post as commercial vice president for Harsco's Metals & Minerals Division in early June, three months after he secretly agreed to take an executive job with the Michigan-based Edw. C. Levy Co., Harsco's suit states.
Harsco claims that, starting early this year, Kirkwood not only passed confidential Harsco information to Levy, including data on top-level corporate decisions, he also intervened to try to steer Harsco away from international projects where it could be in competition with Levy.
Harsco seeks unspecified monetary damages in the case and is asking Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner to order Kirkwood and Levy, the co-defendant in the suit, to return the allegedly pilfered information and purge it from Levy's records.
Berl Falbaum, a spokesman for the Levy Co., declined comment on the suit Wednesday. "As a matter of policy we don't respond to legal matters publicly," he said. "We do so in court."
Attempts to reach Kirkwood by phone and email weren't immediately successful.
The Harsco suit reads like the script for a movie about corporate espionage. According to Harsco, Kirkwood's alleged actions had an effect around the globe.
Harsco's lawyers refer to the alleged espionage as "shocking," especially since it involved an ex-employee who worked for Harsco for 23 years, had risen steadily through the corporate ranks, and was trusted implicitly.
They claim Kirkwood, a citizen of the United Kingdom, accepted his final promotion from Harsco in April, a month after he had secretly accepted a $420,000-a-year vice president job with Levy.
They alleged that Kirkwood also passed confidential corporate information to an industry consultant, Geoffrey Butler, a former Harsco president who retired four years ago. Butler is not a defendant in the suit.
Harsco's suit does have an international flair, which is understandable as the firm has more than 12,000 employees and provides logistical and environmental support and engineering services to heavy industry worldwide. Kirkwood was considered one of the company's top 100 employees, the Harsco suit states.
The firm contends that Kirkwood began secretly soliciting employment with Levy in January, using his wife's email. Soon after, he began passing information to Levy, including information regarding a potential Harsco project involving a steel mill in Israel, the suit states. Harsco claims Kirkwood actively tried to deter it from considering that project. Also, he passed Levy inside information on a possible Harsco project with a company in India, and on projects in Brazil and Oman, Harsco alleges.
By remaining with Harsco after he supposedly accepted the Levy job, "Kirkwood continued to benefit from very high-level access to Harsco's most confidential business and proprietary information, including trade secrets," the suit states.
His alleged actions breached noncompete and confidentiality agreements Kirkwood had signed, it contends. Harsco claims the amount of corporate insider information Kirkwood passed on was "enormous."
"Had Harsco been aware that Kirkwood had accepted an offer of employment from a competitor, Harsco would have terminated his employment or placed him on 'garden leave,' " by allowing him to stay home and collect a paycheck, but isolating him from corporate interaction, the suit states.
Harsco is suing both Kirkwood and Levy on claims that they violated the state's Trade Secrets Act, and allegations of unjust enrichment, tortious interference with contractual and business relations, and unfair competition. It also is suing Kirkwood for breach of fiduciary duty and Levy for abetting those alleged acts.