PHILADELPHIA – A company that manages residential mortgage investment funds is suing a rival company and an ex-employee for allegedly misusing the company’s trade secrets and confidential information.
The complaint filed by PPR Note Co. LLC on Feb. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania accuses L2L Investments GSP REI and Peter Neill of violating the Trade Secrets Act and the Pennsylvania Trade Secrets Act, as well as unfair competition and breach of contract.
PPR Note is demanding a jury trial.
According to the lawsuit, Neil was hired by PPR Note in 2015 to communicate and educate investors or potential investors about the company’s funds. In 2019, Neil left the company and joined defendant GSP, a competitor to PPR Note, as vice president of investor relations.
The complaint alleges that in November 2019 officials of PPR Note began receiving communications from investors that Neil was soliciting them on behalf of GSP.
“During its investigation, PPR Note learned that in the weeks leading up to his departure, Neill began regularly downloading and saving information from PPR Note's database of actual and potential investors including the names and email addresses of all 24,000 contacts that PPR Note had spent over a decade compiling through extensive marketing efforts,” the lawsuit claims.
The complaint alleges Neil violated his severance agreement with PPR and asks the court for an award of $10,000 plus other monetary damages as deemed proper.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number 2:20-cv-00799-MSG