Ex-Velux boss charged with industrial espionage

An unnamed ex-employee of the window producer could risk up to six years imprisonment

Stephen Gadd

After almost three years of exhaustive investigations, police in north Zealand have moved in on an unnamed ex-executive of the window producer Velux.

The man’s lawyer Jan Aarup has informed Finans that the police have charged his client with trying to pass on confidential company information to a Polish competitor.

READ ALSO: Velux uses EU funds to outsource to eastern Europe

He will also be charged using a company credit card for private purchases.

Off to the glasshouse?
Aarup expressed surprise that his client had been charged.

“The investigation has been long drawn out and we expected that it would establish that nothing untoward had taken place,” he said, adding that his client still insists that he is innocent.

If convicted the ex-Velux executive may go to prison for up to six years.

According to Aarup, another person has also been charged in connection with the case.

A window of opportunity
Back in 2017 Finans was able to break the story when a Polish woman revealed she had told Velux that in 2016 an employee of that company had tried to sell large amounts of internal documents through a German middle man to the Polish company Fakro.

Fakro, regarded as Velux’s biggest competitor, has repeatedly denied it has done anything wrong.

Jens Bekke, the press officer at Velux, is ‘very satisfied’ at the decision to press charges.

The company has estimated the value of the potential damage from the sale of its trade secrets to be as much as 5 billion kroner.

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