On Monday, two men who conspired to steal trade secrets from The Coca-Cola Company for subsequent sale to PepsiCo, Inc., pleaded guilty to the crime at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division. Ibrahim Dimson and Edmund Dehaney pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy, while a third person, Joya Williams, pleaded not guilty to the charges against her. According to the CNN article (link below), Williams was to "copy and/or remove the company's trade secret documents and remove samples of products that were in development" and give them to Duhaney and Dimson, who would then attempt to sell the trade secrets. An attempted sale to a Pepsi employee led to involvement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, further leading to a $75,000 attempted sale and a $1.5M attempted sale of the trade secrets by the two men. A sample of product that was stolen from Coca-Cola and “sold” to an FBI agent was tested and confirmed as a true Coca-Cola sample product. According to the Yahoo! News article below, convictions in this trade secret theft case could result in 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine for each defendant.

CNNMoney.com News Article: LINK
Yahoo! News Article: LINK
18 U.S.C. § 1832 (Theft of Trade Secrets): LINK