Man Stole Proprietary Data and Accidentally Shared It with His Former Employer In Teams Call

Is this the failure of the century? One man stole trade secrets from his former company and left that data visible in a Teams call with his former co-workers.

This is a facepalm of epic proportions already, way worse than that worker fired for the mouse jiggler, because the story just gets worse and worse. Not only did he show the stolen code to his former colleagues, he got his new employer sued as well. 

The company being sued? None other than NVIDIA, the tech giant, who now stands accused of stealing proprietary software.

NVIDIA was sued by Valeo, a company working on driving assistance software and claiming that NVIDIA used their proprietary information to expand in that area, aka information stolen by their former employee.

“So brazen was Mr Moniruzzaman’s theft,” their complaint says, “the file path on his screen still read ValeoDocs”, so the employee didn’t even bother to rename the folder taken from his former employee.

The Teams call happened in 2022 and in that folder were not only the source code to Valeo software but “tens of thousands of files” belonging to them, according to their complaint.

The BBC reported on the case and detailed how that employee done f*cked up, basically:

“Valeo claims that Mr Moniruzzaman gave a slide presentation and then minimized the app he was using – but crucially, he was still sharing his screen, leaving visible the file which Valeo says contained the source code behind its proprietary software,” wrote the outlet.

“Valeo participants on the videoconference call immediately recognised the source code and took a screenshot before Mr Moniruzzaman was alerted of his error,” says the lawsuit Valeo filed against NVIDIA.

Why NVIDIA?

Because Mr Moniruzzaman straight up admitted to stealing Valeo’s software and using it while employed at NVIDIA, which obviously makes NVIDIA a beneficiary of that data.

“Nvidia has saved millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of dollars in development costs, and generated profits that it did not properly earn and to which it was not entitled,” says the complaint.

The BBC contacted Valeo and NVIDIA for comment but, as of writing, no company has responded.

Also read: Future Unemployment Assured? Man Fired from His Remote Job Sends HR People Everywhere A Hilarious Note

Photo by Chris Barbalis via Unsplash