Former Winchester Brake Pad Engineer Pleads Guilty to Theft of Trade Secrets Charge

LEXINGTON, KY—Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Perrye Turner, Special Agent in Charge, FBI; and Mythili Raman, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division jointly announced today that a Winchester, Kentucky man admitted in federal court that he conspired to share confidential information about his employer’s brake pads with another company.

David Lewis, 65, pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, before Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood.

Lewis admitted that, between 2006 and 2007, he e-mailed trade secrets concerning the specifications of brake pads, which information is the property of Lewis’s former employer, Brake Parts International Inc. According to the plea agreement, Lewis was paid thousands of dollars by a Canadian company for this information.

On March 3, Lewis waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty to the charge brought by U.S. Attorney Harvey.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hydee Hawkins and Evan Williams, Senior Council of the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section.

David Lewis is scheduled to be sentenced on July 7, 2014. He faces up 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. However, any sentence will be imposed by the Court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the applicable federal statutes.