Case Study – Financial Services
A global financial services firm was told by an internal whistleblower that senior members of a proprietary trading desk were planning to leave to join a regional competitor and complete several transactions which they had been working on with their current employer. The client believed that the prop desk would be in breach of their employment contracts if they departed with a large volume of client and transaction specific information. They also believed the departures could seriously damage the company’s performance and reputation if they were to join to a competitor.
In coordination with the employment law team of a major law firm the client discreetly asked Billiter to investigate the concerns. By forensically analysing the IT and communications equipment, Billiter was able to prove that key members of the prop desk had downloaded information relating to three transactions to external storage devices. Examination of messaging applications on the computers and mobile devices of the employees showed several months of communication outlining some of their plans to copy proprietary information and pursue the transactions they were working on at another firm.
The client’s legal counsel was able to use the evidence obtained by Billiter to show that the Managing Director had violated specific clauses in his employment contract. He was dismissed along with four other employees who were also shown to have breached their contracts. As the investigation was proceeding, the client was able to also take internal actions and legal recourse which allowed them to protect the transactions which had been under threat and hire replacements to ensure their other client coverage was not adversely affected by the departures.