Sommers Schwartz attorney Andrew Kochanowski obtained a $2 million verdict in federal court on behalf of V Cars, LLC, a company founded by noted automotive entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin.
V Cars sought to export into the United States cars produced in China by Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., and employed Dennis Gore to lead a team of engineers in analyzing and adapting the foreign-produced vehicles to U.S. federal standards. V Cars claimed that Gore, while on its payroll, performed side services for Chery to help Chery to make a separate deal with another company and conveyed confidential information and strategy to Chery’s executives while hiding same from Bricklin and V Cars management. At the time, V Cars was looking for $200 million demanded by Chery to put into the export JV.
Unknown to V Cars’ management, Gore and Chery’s executives, including its Chief Executive Officer, Yin Tongyao, spent months discussing sensitive company information in a private email channel set up by Gore at Chery’s request. After VCars found the $200 million from an Israeli holding company, with encouragement from Chery’s executives Gore established an engineering company, subsequently KCA Engineering, LLC. When Chery and the Israeli company entered into the JV without V Cars, KCA received a lucrative contract from Chery through a friendly supplier in order to serve as a payoff and to hide it from V Cars. When V Cars discovered the G private communications, and began a series of legal actions, Gore relocated to Shanghai, China where KCA continued to be paid under a series of contracts between KCA Engineering, LLC, Chery, and various third parties. An eight-person jury took less than one day to return a verdict in favor of V Cars, LLC after several days of testimony.