A former secretary for Atlanta-based soft drink giant Coca-Cola was found guilty Friday of trying to sell top-secret information from the company to rival PepsiCo for $1.5 million.
Joya Williams, 41, now faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced along with two co-conspirators who pleaded guilty to violating the federal Corporate Espionage Act late last year. Williams’ attorney, Janice Singer, said she expects to file an appeal, reports the Associated Press.
According to prosecutors, Williams took sensitive marketing materials and test product samples from Coke last year while working as an executive assistant to a high-level marketing executive. They said Williams then solicited help from two felons, Edmund Duhaney of Decatur and Ibrahim Dimson of New York. Together the three tried to sell the materials to PepsiCo for $1.5 million, according to the charges. But the Pepsi negotiator was actually an undercover FBI agent running a sting operation. All three were arrested on July 5.
The plot was foiled by PepsiCo, which had received a letter from Dimson in May 2006 offering to sell them documents. Pepsi faxed the letter to Coke, which called authorities.