Colfax man accused of stealing trade secrets from employer
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — A 41-year-old Colfax man is accused of stealing trade secrets from an employer.
Oscar E. Hernandez II is scheduled for an initial appearance in Dunn County Circuit Court May 10 before Judge Luke M. Wagner on one felony count of taking, using or transferring trade secrets and two misdemeanor counts of computer crimes to modify data and to destroy data.
According to the criminal complaint, a Dunn County deputy was assigned January 15 of this year to follow up on a report of a theft from American Structures located in the Town of Menomonie.
The company owner and the company’s manager said electronic data had been stolen that contains “blueprints” for their Prima Power Platino laser cutter, which cuts diagrams of stainless steel.
The blueprints are unique because they are developed and designed for each specific job for various customers.
The company owner said American Structures is a large-scale business which serves customers across the nation, the complaint states.
The company manager said Oscar Hernandez was a “disgruntled employee” who works as a laser operator and cuts steel for American Structures.
On Friday, January 7, Hernandez and another employee, David Campbell, left work together and both did not show up for work on Monday, January 10. Both employees were called but did not answer, and both have not been to work since and have not contacted the company, the manager said.
The manager said he had assigned another employee who was somewhat trained on the laster to operate it in order to continue with the work orders. The employee informed the manager that the laser was not working and the blueprint data could not be located, according to the complaint.
Prima, the company that manufactures the laser, was contacted, and a company representative remotely accessed the laser and notified the company manager that the blueprint data was no longer in the laser cutter memory storage system.
The company manager contacted the company’s information technology professional, who concluded that the main computer that holds and maintains the blueprint information had all of the “part files” deleted and that those files could not be recovered from the computer.
The IT person also said job folders under the “Oscar” profile had been compressed and had potentially been copied to an external storage device.
The owner of American Structures told the deputy that the loss of the blueprint files had “crippled” the company and that he feared Hernandez would present the blueprints to another competitor in the industry, the complaint states.
Flash-drive
The owner of American Structures explained that a flash-drive normally kept on the desk by the computer was missing and that the flash-drive was used daily to transfer blueprints to the laser cutters. Also, on a shelf above the computer, was a small toy steel truck that Hernandez had made, the complaint states.
The company owner said Hernandez loved the truck and that he was surprised Hernandez had not taken it with him. When the truck was inspected, the flash-drive was hidden inside.
The owner of American Structures said he had received an e-mail from Hernandez on January 7, and when the deputy read the e-mail, which was talking negatively about the company manager, the deputy said it seemed that Hernandez was very frustrated.
The owner of American Structures told the deputy that with the blueprint data missing, the company is losing approximately $30,000 each day, according to the complaint.
The deputy asked if the company owner and the manager thought Campbell, the other employee who had not come back to work, could be part of the incident since they were seen leaving work together, but both of them said they did not believe Campbell would have the know-how to commit the crime since he is not a laser operator. They also said they did not know if Campbell had knowledge of what Hernandez had allegedly done, the complaint states.
Search warrant
The next day on Sunday, January 15, after obtaining a search warrant from Dunn County Judge James Peterson, the deputy and an investigator from the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department went to Hernandez’s residence on county Highway B.
Hernandez admitted to transferring the files to the flash-drive and hiding it above the computer. Hernandez said he had done this to “mess with” the company since he felt frustrated and believes the company manager does not treat the employees with respect, according to the complaint.
Hernandez told the deputy and the investigator that he had never removed any of the data from the company property.
After executing the search warrant, no electronic data stolen from American Structures was located. Hernandez said the data for the blueprints had not been deleted and that people at the company just did not know how to locate it correctly, according to the complaint.
The deputy and the investigator asked if they could drive Hernandez to American Structures and have him show the staff how to locate the data, to which he agreed.
Steps 4 & 5
When the investigator and the deputy met with company officials, the information technology technician said some of the data had been permanently deleted from the flash-drive.
Each blueprint or job contains five steps, and the IT technician was able to obtain Steps 1, 2 and 3 but steps 4 and 5 were deleted for every job.
Each of the 2,300 jobs would have to be manually retooled, and one retool for each job would take five minutes, the complaint states.
According to the complaint, the deputy’s report was submitted to the Dunn County District Attorney’s office for review and also was submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigations to present to the Federal Court of the Western District of Wisconsin for review.
The complaint goes on to say that the deputy had met with the owner of American Structures, who had spoken with Prima Power, the manufacturer of the lasers.
A technician on scene who was working on fixing one of the lasers discovered mirror adjustments had been changed. The adjustments are not easily changed and pose a danger to the operator of being struck by the laser and perhaps losing a limb, the complaint states.
The company owner told the deputy he believed that Hernandez had sabotaged the mirror. There is no additional evidence, however, beside the fact that the lasers were functioning perfectly up until Hernandez had tampered with the lasers and the blueprints, according to the complaint.
According to online court records, the complaint was filed April 11, and on the same day, Judge Wagner issued a summons for Hernandez to appear in court on May 10 at 10:30 a.m.
Theft of trade secrets is a Class I felony that carries a possible penalty, upon conviction, of a fine of up to $10,000 and/or a prison sentence of three years and sixth months.
The computer crimes of modifying data or destroying data are a Class A misdemeanor carrying a possible penalty, upon conviction, of a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to nine months in jail on each count.