BATON ROUGE – A complaint filed May 24 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana alleges a recently terminated employee hacked into the company's website and email system, essentially rendering both unusable; and took client files when she left.
Partco is a machine shop that provides services to the energy sector.
Mary Langlois-Templet had been in employee of Partco prior to its purchase on March 1 of by Timothy Fox.
The complaint states that “as part of this purchase, Mr. Fox made efforts to maintain Partco’s existing employees, including Ms. Templet, who served as the safety and compliance manager, and otherwise handled human resource responsibilities.” She was a key employee.
The plaintiff suggests Ms. Templet “assumed a position of confidence” in the company and notes that she had sensitive information regarding the company's IT architecture, as well as other company and customers.
Templet was terminated April 20, according to the complaint.
It is after this, the complaint alleges, that she “hacked Partco's company email and website and changed profile and credential information,” which the plaintiff argues was a significant business disruption as it resulted in the company losing access to its own digital assets. The complaint specifies “loss of business opportunity and business value” and describes the extent of Templet's position regarding company operations and access.
“As an employee, manager and mandate of Partco, Ms. Templet had direct relationships with Partco clients and access to Partco’s trade secrets, client information, emails, computers, software, website platforms, and other confidential and proprietary information,” the complaint states.
The complaint formally alleges unlawful access to stored communications and violation of the wiretap act, as well as breach of fiduciary duty and negligence.
Plaintiff's counsel is asking for a judgment against Ms. Templet and for relief of legal costs and other liabilities.
The complaint was filed by Hunter Bertrand of Dunlap Fiory on behalf of Partco. It specifies that papers should be served to Ms. Templet in preparation for further proceedings.