U.S. May File Theft Charges Against Ex-GM Exec Lopez
Former General Motors Corp. executive J. Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua could face federal criminal charges for allegedly stealing confidential GM documents when he left for Volkswagen, a Justice Department source said Friday.
The source, who requested anonymity, said Lopez could face a variety of charges, including theft of trade secrets related to U.S. patents and transportation of stolen property across state lines or international borders.
Lopez, who has not been charged with any crime in the United States, has steadfastly denied he took any GM trade secrets with him when he abruptly left the U.S. auto giant in March for the German auto maker.
Bruce MacDonald, GM’s vice president of corporate communications, would only say in a statement: “We can confirm that we were contacted by the Justice Department this week and advised that they are conducting an investigation into the possible theft of GM documents by certain of our former employees.
“Obviously, we will cooperate in that investigation,” he said. MacDonald declined to comment further.
A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation.
In Germany, a Volkswagen spokesman said: “We have not been contacted by the Justice Department and know nothing of this matter.”
News of the U.S. investigation, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as German authorities are looking into GM charges that Lopez and some associates took plans for a new GM small car with them to Volkswagen.
In testimony Thursday during a separate civil proceeding involving Volkswagen and the German magazine Der Spiegel, John Howell, GM director of business planning, said Lopez was one of five GM board members who requested copies of a 100- to 150-page document about the car. One week after receiving the documents, Lopez left for VW.
Legal experts said GM may have a better chance of pressing its case in the United States. Donald Jolliffe, an expert in corporate law at the University of Detroit Law School, said U.S. officials could charge Lopez with mail and wire fraud if they find evidence that he used the postal or phone systems to move documents out of the country.
In addition, Jolliffe said GM could also go after VW in civil court to prevent the auto maker from using any information Lopez may have obtained while working for GM.
“Anybody who participated with the former employee could be held responsible for paying over the amount of whatever gain they got out of it,” Jolliffe said.
News of the U.S. investigation is the latest in a series of legal tangles between the two auto giants.
On Thursday, GM officials clashed with Volkswagen’s lawyers in a separate civil proceeding involving Der Spiegel.On June 11, VW won a gag order against Der Spiegel to prevent the magazine from repeating its claim that Lopez took secret documents with him when he left.
Der Spiegel provided affidavits and testimony from nearly two dozen GM officials to support its claims and to reverse the order. A requested a reversal of the order.
