FLSmidth has with immediate effect terminated its working relationship with a consultant who has been attached to the Company's Research and Development Centre, due to participation in industrial espionage against the Company. The termination of the relationship is based on gross violation of Section 10 of the Marketing Act and participation in violation of provisions of the Criminal Code regarding industrial espionage, on the part of the former employee who until today has been attached to the Research and Development department as a consultant. In March 1998 the former employee in question sold to a German competitor a complete set of layout/manufacturing drawings and other documentation for a clinker cooler developed and patented by FLSmidth, this being one of the principal machines in a cement plant. In addition, FLSmidth has reported the German company to the German police for industrial espionage in terms of having received stolen property and having used unlawfully acquired material.
FLSmidth has also taken civil action against the German competitor, prompting the German authorities to have searched the premises of the competing German company.
FLSmidth considers this case a very serious matter and shall pursue it under criminal law and by taking civil action against the German undertaking, claiming compensation for the losses inflicted upon FLSmidth through the acquisition and use of the said layout/manufacturing drawings and other documentation for the clinker cooler.
FLSmidth
Corporate Public Relations