This week, it was announced that 55-year-old Josh Harry Isler of St. Ansgar, Iowa had been charged with a single count of trade secret theft and a count of making a false statement to the FBI. The charges are contained in an Information filed with the United States District Court in Cedar Rapids. The Information alleges that in August of 2013 the defendant was employed by DuPont. After accepting an offer of employment with a competitor, the defendant allegedly stole trade secrets from DuPont.
After accepting employment with a competitor in the ethanol fuel enzyme business, the defendant is accused of transferring hundreds of DuPont’s electronic files to an external storage device. The Information accuses the defendant of knowing that the downloaded files contained proprietary information and trade secrets belonging to DuPont.
Isler is accused of retaining the files and transferring some of them to his new employer. It is also alleged that the defendant falsely denied downloading the files containing DuPont’s proprietary information when interviewed by the FBI in November of 2013. At this point in time, the defendant is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
If convicted on both charges, Isler would face a maximum combined sentence of 15 years in prison. Further details have been made available here.