Danville Man Convicted of Stealing Trade Secrets From Previous Employer

A Danville man was convicted in federal court on April 24 of conspiring to gain unauthorized access to his former employer's computer system, computer intrusion and trade secret offenses, according to United States Attorney Melinda Haag.

David Nosal, 55, was convicted of all charges in the six-count indictment and is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 4.

Nosal was an executive recruiter for Korn/Ferry International, an executive serch firm based out of San Francisco.

Evidence at trial showed that Nosal, in 2004, conspired with other Korn/Ferry employees to take confidential and proprietary materials from Korn/Ferry’s computer system to be used in a new business that Nosal intended to establish after he left Korn/Ferry in late 2004.

Two Korn/Ferry employees downloaded large numbers of “source lists” prior to leaving the company. After leaving the company, those two employees conspired with someone still at Korn/Ferry to download additional source lists and other information from Korn/Ferry’s computer system in April and July 2005 for use in Nosal’s new business.

Nosal was initially indicted by a federal grand jury on April 10, 2008 and the government obtained superseding indictments on June 26, 2008 and February 28, 2013.