Prysmian, a leader in the energy transition and digital transformation, and a major employer in the Lexington, South Carolina area, has won its trade secrets case against its competitor Sterlite Technologies, Inc. and Prysmian’s former executive, Stephen Szymanski.
On August 9, 2024, a South Carolina jury found in favor of Prysmian following a three-week jury trial in U.S. District Court in Columbia, South Carolina. The jury found that Sterlite was unjustly enriched by taking Prysmian’s trade secrets and awarded $96,500,000 in damages against Sterlite Technologies, Inc. In addition, the jury found that Stephen Szymanski had been unjustly enriched by misappropriating Prysmian’s trade secrets and awarded $200,000 against Mr. Szymanski, personally. Mr. Szymanski ran Prysmian’s optical fiber cable business in North America, and departed Prysmian for Sterlite, a direct competitor, in August 2020.
Prysmian filed its lawsuit in June 2021, accusing its former executive of misappropriating trade secrets and taking them to his new employer Sterlite, a direct competitor. Sterlite and Szymanski denied that they had taken anything from Prysmian. At trial, Prysmian ultimately proved that Sterlite had taken thousands and thousands of pages of Prysmian’s confidential information and trade secrets. The materials in Sterlite’s possession included information about Prysmian’s customers, information about Prysmian’s newest products, and information about Prysmian’s plans to expand its manufacturing plants. Much of the information was found in the possession of not just Szymanski and Sterlite, but also in the possession of executives at Sterlite’s global headquarters in Pune, India.
