The Australian unit of TF Global Markets (Aust) Limited, parent company of online broker ThinkMarkets, is suing a former employee, alleging that the worker has taken information and brought to their competitor that they are now working for.
The company is seeking permanent injunction against James Sorenson in Illinois federal court. Sorenson had security access to high level of information and now works for IS Group, who are suing Think Markets. Allegedly, Soreson obtained email from ThinkMarkets’ legal director about litigation between the company and IS Group.
The complaint notes that Sorenson had no legal right over the information as he was not a sender or recipient of the email.
The lawsuit said:
ThinkMarkets is highly concerned that, among other things, Sorenson has disclosed or will disclose it to his new employer in order to, among other benefits, secure his new employment and otherwise harm ThinkMarkets.
Soreson worked at the IT Department of ThinkMarkets almost 5 years until 2 October 2020. The lawsuit says that he left the broker without notice and never responded to the company’s request to disclose his new employer. The company learned he was working for their rival, IS Group, specifically IS Risk Analytics in December which prompted a forensic investigation. Then the broker discovered dozens of sensitive emails, Soreson was not supposed to have.
The company also alleged that Sorenson deleted an IT repository in a proprietary application that stored proprietary code upon his departure from the company.
The company alleges:
Given Sorenson’s deletion of a code repository shortly before his resignation, ThinkMarkets has every reason to believe that these emails are only the tip of the iceberg, and that in order to cover his tracks, Sorenson also likely has deleted many more emails that he never should have accessed.
Other than business competitors, Think Markets and IS Group have also been involved in litigation. Their rivalry began in 2017 following IS Group’s acquisition of ThinkLiquidity. IS has claimed that ThinkMarkets breached their contract for the acquisition.
In December 2020, IS Prime filed a lawsuit against TF Global Markets (Aust) Limited for breach of Liquidity Addendum. IS Prime alleged that the defendant used services of another broker for business they were obliged to give exclusively to them. IS Prime claimed it suffered loss of $15 million.
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