TechnipFMC sues McDermott, alleging theft of trade secrets
Company says that when executive left, he took crucial data
TechnipFMC is suing rival McDermott International and the executive that McDermott hired away from TechnipFMC for the alleged theft of trade secrets.
TechnipFMC, in a lawsuit filed in state district court in Harris County, claims that Samik Mukherjee downloaded thousands of sensitive and confidential documents the day before he resigned his executive vice president position at TechnipFMC to accept the chief operating officer’s position at McDermott. The lawsuit claims
McDermott is already winning work based on some of the sensitive information.
The two energy engineering and construction companies are global competitors that both have local operational headquarters. The lawsuit alleges McDermott and Mukherjee violated the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act.
District Judge Mike Engelhart granted a temporary restraining order requiring McDermott and Mukherjee to return any TechnipFMC documents and to not use any confidential information or trade secrets.
Mukherjee also must make his electronic devices and storage accounts available for a third-party forensic inspection.
The judge, however, refused to block Mukherjee from working at McDermott, as requested by Technip FMC.
McDermott spokeswoman Gentry Brann said that her company already offered to comply with the terms put in place by the court order and that the lawsuit was unnecessary.
“The company believes these claims have no merit, and Mr. Mukherjee has our full support in the matter,” Brann added. “We are confident that no wrongdoing has occurred.”
The temporary restraining order is valid through Aug. 23, and the parties are scheduled to return to court on Aug. 24. The lawsuit asks that McDermott pay back all the profits received from the alleged theft of trade secrets, plus additional damages.
Mukherjee worked at Technip for 20 years, eventually getting promoted to an executive vice president of corporate development and strategy role for TechnipFMC in the company’s Paris office. He moved to Houston this summer.
The lawsuit says Mukherjee oversaw TechnipFMC’s competitive business strategies worldwide, including its strategy against its smaller rival McDermott. He even reviewed the potential acquisition of business units of The Woodlands engineering and construction company CB&I. McDermott acquired CB&I earlier this year, making McDermott more of a direct competitor worldwide with TechnipFMC, both onshore and offshore.
Mukherjee resigned on May 2 and took over McDermott’s chief operating officer position in early July. On May 1, he downloaded more than 3 gigabytes of data onto the external storage drives, the lawsuit alleges. Many of the files were listed as confidential, the lawsuit contends.
Mukherjee claimed he was only performing a “routine backup” of his computer, according to the lawsuit.
He did not hand over the external drives until May 7, a gap that TechnipFMC alleges gave him more than ample time to copy and transfer the files, the lawsuit alleges. He also never handed over other storage drives that he used during the last year of his employment.
After TechnipFMC made requests for the devices and data, McDermott and Mukherjee told Technip FMC on Aug. 3 that it would take weeks to search for the items, according to the lawsuit.
On Aug. 7, TechnipFMC learned that it lost to McDermott by less than 1 percent of the bid price on a major project with India’s largest national oil company, ONGC.
“Put simply,” TechnipFMC said in its complaint, “the odds of one competitor undercutting another by such a narrow margin are unlikely to be mere coincidence.”