Flexport is going after 2 former employees, accusing them of stealing its source code
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- Flexport filed a lawsuit against two former employees for stealing their trade secrets.
- The logistics startup said the two employees had stolen thousands of confidential files.
- The two employees went on to start a competitor, Freightmate AI.
Logistics startup Flexport filed a lawsuit against two of its former employees for setting up a competitor, Freightmate AI, based on information stolen from them.
"Defendant Freightmate is a product of theft, not ingenuity," Flexport's lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed in a California court on March 12.
When approached for comment, a spokesperson for Freightmate AI told Business Insider they "dispute Flexport's claims and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court."
Flexport did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
In their lawsuit, Flexport's lawyers said Freightmate AI's CEO, Bryan Lacaillade, and COO, Jason Zhao, had stolen Flexport's files and data.
Lacaillade and Zhao cofounded Freightmate AI last year, months after they left Flexport. Lacaillade was with Flexport from October 2021 to April 2024, while Zhao worked there from June 2021 to May 2024, per their LinkedIn profiles.
Flexport's lawyers wrote in their lawsuit that both men "secretly conspired to form a competing company in stealth mode" months before they left Flexport. The lawsuit added that Lacaillade left first to set up Freightmate AI, while Zhao stayed behind as a "secret agent" to steal Flexport's trade secrets.
"Zhao downloaded hundreds, sometimes thousands, of files per day onto personal USB drives or cloud storage, employing techniques to hide his tracks," the lawyers wrote, adding that Zhao downloaded Flexport's source code days before he left the company.
Both Lacaillade and Zhao admitted to taking Flexport's documents and data, though they "refused to allow any review of Freightmate source code" when confronted by Flexport, per the lawsuit.
"Flexport welcomes fair competition, even from former employees. But the actions of Freightmate and its founders were anything but fair — they were unlawful," the lawyers wrote, adding that Flexport wanted to "recover its stolen property" and stop Freightmate AI from using its proprietary information.
Flexport isn't the only company that has accused former employees of corporate espionage.
On Monday, HR software company Rippling filed a lawsuit against rival Deel, saying its competitor had used a spy to steal Rippling's business secrets. Rippling's lawyers said the company caught the spy after using a honeypot email sent to Deel's top leaders.