Billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has been accused of failing to reveal “material” info when it secured a warrant to raid the houses and workplaces of ex-Fortescue employees, who’ve been accused of stealing the iron ore group’s intellectual property, based on courtroom paperwork.
Fortescue has taken authorized motion in the Federal Court in opposition to three former workers: Michael Masterman, Bart Kolodziejczyk and Bjorn Winther-Jensen. It has accused the boys of copying and taking the corporate’s intellectual property after they left to start out a rival inexperienced iron mission, referred to as Element Zero.
Former Fortescue executives Bart Kolodziejczyk and Michael Masterman are the co-founders of inexperienced iron start-up Element Zero.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Element Zero has rejected the allegations, and its chief government, Masterman, has described the claims as “spurious”. Fortescue’s government chairman, Forrest, has argued that defending the corporate’s intellectual property stays “critical to its success”.
A warrant was secured to conduct raids on Element Zero’s workplaces and the houses of Kolodziejczyk and Winther-Jensen. It is estimated that three terabits of knowledge was gathered from private computer systems, cellphones and cloud storage accounts.
Included in the trove of knowledge have been all the enterprise information of Element Zero, together with payroll knowledge, budgets and forecasts, and all the private emails despatched and obtained by Kolodziejczyk since 2008. However, Kolodziejczyk solely began at Fortescue Future Industries on July 1, 2020, and ceased working there on November 5, 2021, in his roles as chief scientist (vitality) and later chief scientist.
Kolodziejczyk is now chief know-how officer of Element Zero, a firm he and Masterman based on the finish of 2022.
In affidavits filed to the courtroom, Gilbert + Tobin accomplice Michael Williams, who’s representing Element Zero, stated he had “serious concerns” concerning the materials that was relied on by Fortescue to safe the warrant from the Federal Court.
He stated the fabric “omitted key information” concerning the relationship between Fortescue and Element Zero, notably in the six months earlier than the orders have been executed.
Williams stated the fabric relied on for the orders, which included affidavits, didn’t disclose a meeting that occurred on December 19 between Masterman, Fortescue’s chief authorized counsel, Phil McKeiver, and Paul Dewar of regulation agency Davies Collison Cave. Dewar is representing Fortescue in its case in opposition to Element Zero.
