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Homeless Man Arrested for Theft of Trade Secrets

By McNabb Associates

Reynold Sare Chapin, a homeless man, is being charged with theft of trade secrets. Chapin apparently found advance copies of a Nike 2008 catalog in a dumpster, and he was arrested by FBI agents this week at Portland International Airport and charged under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.[1] Jerry Needham, the federal public defender representing Chapin, asserts that Chapin was homeless and may have a history of mental illness.[2]The investigation started when Richie Woodworth, president of Saucony Inc., notified Nike that somebody had sent him photocopies of pages showing unreleased Nike products; ''People would die to see what's coming next,'' Woodworth asserted.[3] Woodworth then sent the unsolicited material he had received to Nike Chief Executive Mark Parker because it contained a claim the material would be sold to the highest bidder and that four CEOs had been offered a crack at it, according to the court documents...continue to full post

Full post as published by Federal Crimes Blog on November 13, 2007 (boomark / email).