NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) – General Electric Co accused Siemens Energy AG of using stolen trade secrets for rigged bids for lucrative contracts supplying gas turbines to public utilities, and improper trading profits. Covered, which is more than $ 1 billion in total. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday.
GE sued a rival company, Siemens Energy Inc., in US district court in Virginia, alleging theft detection until May 2019, when industrial coaglomerates provided Dominion Energy Inc. with gas turbine equipment and servicing of Dominion Energy Bid for Which provides electricity to about 4 million customers on the East Coast.
In view of Siemens AG, the suit is closing down its energy business to create Siemens Energy. GE alleged that Siemens Energy used improperly obtained trade secrets from a Dominion employee to win contracts that would push up the price of its initial public offering to be held in September.
A Siemens Energy spokesman had no immediate comment and a Dominion representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
During GE’s bid for business with Dominion, the lawsuit alleges, a senior Dominion employee presented Siemens account manager confidential business information to GE. The information also included an analysis of all of Dominion’s bids, giving Siemens a “blueprint” to win contracts worth up to $ 340 million with the utility for the business, known as the Peakers Project Goes, GE said.
The acquiring of GE’s trade secrets at Siemens gave information to colleagues including those who prepared the Dominion bid, which they believed would help win the business, Sue said.
The Dominion employee, no longer working there, briefed the Siemens manager at least half a dozen times, forwarding it in some instances from his personal email address to the wife of the Siemens manager, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit stated that the employee lives in Siemens.
In the bid package, GE provided Dominion with technical specifications for the four gas turbine models, pricing for various combinations of equipment and details on how the company would serve and maintain it, the lawsuit claims. Gas turbines are combustion engines that convert natural gas into energy-generating generators that supply electricity to large residential and commercial developments.
Siemens only alerted GE to 16 months later in September to improperly obtain a trade secret, which GE described as a “nothing to see here, people” letter The letter sued, reducing the breach in the letter.
This alert came after Siemens completed its internal investigation and Dominion completed its investigation. The lawsuit states that Siemens alerted GE to alleged misconduct with Siemens. GE asked a judge to stop Siemens from using the allegedly stolen material and pay damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars or more.
The litigation is the latest legal battle involving corporate rivals, which has escalated into lawsuits over patent infringement, like last year.
The alleged theft put GE at a loss of competition for upcoming contracts worth at least $ 120 million, the lawsuit claims. GE and Siemens are competing on another Dominion bid on Jan. 19, adding readiness to resolve the theft allegations, the lawsuit said.
Since first being improperly informed in May 2019, Siemens has won eight other gas turbine bids on GE’s competition offers, valued at more than $ 1 billion.
In most of those proposals, GE bid for some similar gas turbine models from the Dominion Project, and in one case equipment with similar specifications, the lawsuit said.
According to GE, the Siemens employee who received the trade secrets referred him to several associates, some of whom were instrumental in preparing other gas turbine bids. GE lost the Dominion bid to Siemens in July 2019, without allegations of clarification, and Siemens employees continued to disseminate and use the GE trade secret to tailor at least two additional gas turbine proposals.
Siemens has also “consistently refused” to assure GE that documents containing trade secrets have been destroyed, the lawsuit claims. (Reporting by Mike Spector; Editing by Edward Tobin)
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