Ex-St. Jude Medical VP charged with stealing $117m, trade secrets

A former vice president at St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ), who was reportedly asked to leave Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) for making “bad purchases,” was charged with stealing $117,000 from St. Jude and taking trade secrets with him after he was fired, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

Authorities in Ramsey County, Minn., charged Bryan Szweda with 5 felony counts of theft by swindle and a single felony charge of theft of trade secrets, the newspaper reported. Szweda allegedly bilked St. Jude for tickets to basketball games, concerts and for jaunts to strip clubs, according to the Star Tribune. After St. Jude in September 2014 suspended him from his job as an operations VP in its structural heart division, Szweda is accused of taking an external hard drive with thousands of purloined files, including the company’s top-secret 4-year strategic plan, according to the report.

Szweda, who now reportedly works for Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW), pleaded not guilty to the charges, the paper reported.

According to a criminal complaint filed with the Ramsey County District Court last week, Szweda allegedly salted his expense reports with double-billed travel expenses and faked invoices from contractors, the newspaper reported. Company managers told a county investigator that there was no legitimate business reason for Szweda billing it for a $1,259 to Rick’s Cabaret.

“Had [St. Jude Medical] known the true nature of the expenses, they would not have approved the payments,” according to the county’s probable cause statement.

The company was also unaware of allegations about Szweda’s past employment at an arch-rival, according to the Star Tribune report: A longtime friend labeled as JDE said in the complaint that Boston Scientific asked Szweda to leave for making “bad purchases.”

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