Trio indicted in Coca-Cola conspiracy
A federal grand jury indicted three people Tuesday on a conspiracy charge alleging they tried to sell Coca-Cola trade secrets to Pepsi and were willing to give the information to the “highest bidder” as new details emerged about the scheme and the suspects.
Former Coca-Cola administrative assistant Joya Williams and ex-cons Ibrahim Dimson and Edmund Duhaney pleaded not guilty at their arraignment.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Feldman then ordered Duhaney and Dimson, who served time together at a federal prison in Alabama, held without bail pending trial. Williams was previously granted bond and remains free. She did not speak to reporters as she left the courthouse.
The crime was foiled after Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc. turned over to The Coca-Cola Co. a May letter Pepsi had received from a man the FBI later identified as Dimson that offered to sell Coke trade secrets to “the highest bidder,” the indictment said. It did not say if the suspects offered the secrets to any company other than Pepsi.
The indictment says a box containing two undisclosed Coca-Cola product samples and other confidential company documents were found in Duhaney’s home during search on July 5, the day all three were arrested.
•General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said Tuesday that he is not against a proposed alliance with Renault and Nissan.
“Nothing could be farther from the truth,” he said in a live interview on CNBC’s “Kudlow & Company.”
In his first interview since billionaire shareholder Kirk Kerkorian proposed an alliance between GM, Renault SA of France and Nissan Motor Co. of Japan, Wagoner said his mind is completely open, but there aren’t enough details available yet to make a judgment.
•Delphi Corp., General Motors Corp.’s largest parts supplier, reported a $2.4 billion loss for 2005 in a delayed annual report filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October, blamed the loss of $4.21 per share on accounting charges, price pressures from a reduction in GM’s North American vehicle production and increased costs for raw materials.
The red ink is an improvement over 2004, when the company had a net loss of $4.8 billion, or $8.59 per share. But the 2004 loss included a $4.7 billion tax write-off in the fourth quarter, the company said.