Final week, a lawsuit towards Clean Rome finance companion James Cretella was filed by his former agency, Otterbourg P.C., for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary obligation, fraudulent concealment, and unjust enrichment. The allegations within the swimsuit are a curler coaster trip that swings between the banal and sensational. For instance, Otterbourg alleges Cretella didn’t disclose his impending departure till after he’d collected a seven-figure bonus and that he solicited purchasers to hitch him at his new agency. From the criticism: “He accepted [the bonus] figuring out full nicely he was leaving and that he had perpetuated a scheme to attempt to hobble the Agency and bolster a competitor whereas conspiring with one other exiting companion and concealing materials details that will have modified the Board’s choice to present him a bonus.”
That are fascinating, if considerably anticipated, allegations following a companion’s lateral transfer. These items don’t sometimes come to litigation, however they’re actually identified ache factors. However then there are the escort allegations.
In accordance with the criticism, Cretella met up with an escort and different ladies whereas touring on agency enterprise. Throughout a forensic examination of Cretella’s firm-issued and firm-paid telephone, it was revealed that he allegedly engaged in “extremely inappropriate and probably illegal private conduct that Cretella engaged in throughout Agency-funded journey,” that included texts messages with an “upscale dominatrix” generally known as “Goddess Kat.”
Then there’s the cyberstalking allegations. There’s a separate federal suit within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Connecticut by Otterbourg’s chairman, Richard L. Stehl, and its president, Richard G. Haddad, over these claims, and Cretella has filed a movement to dismiss. The Otterbourg agency leaders allege Cretella engaged in repeated “unauthorized surveillance” of their private lives. As reported by Regulation.com:
“Forensic proof exhibits that over a interval of years, Cretella repeatedly accessed non-public, non-client information belonging to each males with out their permission or legit objective,” the latest swimsuit states. “These weren’t stray clicks or unintended views. The info exhibits a whole lot of deliberate intrusions – typically at the hours of darkness – concentrating on information that … had nothing to do with agency enterprise.”
A few of this delicate data allegedly included house safety system codes and login credentials for stay digicam feeds inside and outdoors the Stehl household residence, private tax returns and Social Safety password information, privileged authorized communications regarding “deeply private household issues,” together with divorce proceedings and custody preparations involving grandchildren, confidential medical information, non-public monetary statements, in addition to “intimate private particulars,” together with kids’s employment paperwork and residential renovation plans.
Now these are extra lurid allegations.
However in Cretella’s movement to dismiss the federal motion, he alleges the non-public data was saved on the agency’s pc system and accessed by way of a preview perform after performing searches. “Though plaintiffs attempt to conceal behind irrelevant allegations about how Otterbourg’s pc system was meant to function, the criticism confirms a easy reality deadly to plaintiffs’ standing: Utilizing firm-provided credentials, Cretella and different attorneys searched the agency’s pc community and seen the outcomes of these searches, which allegedly included information plaintiffs saved to the firm-wide community. The one believable conclusion is that plaintiffs didn’t take any measures to forestall their information from being accessed by way of routine, firmwide community searches.”
And Cretella isn’t the only Otterbourg partner who not too long ago lateraled to Clean Rome. And wouldn’t you understand it, there’s additionally an Otterbourg complaint filed towards that lawyer, Ikhwan A. Rafeek. That lawsuit additionally alleges entry to personal information of Stehl that Rafeek “repeatedly and systematically” seen when he “intentionally exploited” a pc system vulnerability. The swimsuit additionally alleges Rafeek improperly solicited purchasers in anticipation of his lateral transfer at occasions paid for by Otterbourg.
Rafeek hit again on the allegations towards him in a motion to dismiss, saying the criticism was “baseless” with “bogus claims” in an “try and punish Rafeek vindictively” as a result of he left the agency.
The bitter grapes protection is echoed in Cretella’s filings within the federal case. In an affidavit in that case, he wrote, “Details and circumstances persuade me that my choice to go away Otterbourg, and never any grand privacy-related damage that plaintiffs now declare, introduced on this lawsuit.”
You may learn the current criticism towards Cretella beneath.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Regulation, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the most effective, so please join along with her. Be happy to e mail her with any suggestions, questions, or feedback and observe her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
