ANDOVER — Police have charged an employee of a local job placement agency with stealing client information and giving it to a former co-worker who was fired earlier this year over similar allegations.
Timothy Corcoran, a veteran worker at Staffing Group/Andover Personnel, is accused of stealing possible job leads, resumes and other classified information and giving it to Henry Jacobo at Brooks Staffing & Associates — a North Andover company he helped set up last December before being fired from Staffing Group.
Corcoran, 46, of 168 River Road, Andover, was charged with buying, selling or receiving stolen trade secrets, and conspiracy. After his arraignment yesterday in Lawrence District Court, Corcoran was released without bail and ordered to return to court on Sept. 9 for a pretrial hearing.
Jacobo, 30, of Methuen has not been formally charged. But the police report filed with the court in connection with Corcoran's arrest name him as a major focus of an investigation that dates back to May. The document mentioned that he was to be arraigned in Lawrence District Court on two counts of grand larceny resulting from the theft of confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets.
Lt. James Hashem would not identify the worker Staffing Group fired earlier this year after conducting an internal investigation. But it's clear from the court documents that Corcoran's arrest was based on the company's ongoing investigation after Jacobo was fired.
Andover detectives David Milne and Patrick Keefe went to the company at 35 New England Business Park on Tuesday to talk to Corcoran, who accompanied them to the police station, where he was arrested after an interview.
Corcoran told police that Jacobo was stealing information to use in creating his own company, Brooks Staffing, according to the court document. Corcoran said he warned Jacobo that it was risky to send information he took from the company over his office computer to his personal e-mail account — and that he would eventually get caught doing it.
When detectives pressed Corcoran to explain his relationship with Jacobo, he told them he agreed to provide information to Jacobo — knowing that the information he was sending was protected and prohibited for use outside the company — because he was having financial troubles and needed the money, police said.
If convicted, Corcoran faces up to five years in prison, or two years in the house of correction and a $500 fine.
Staffing Group describes itself as a staffing and placement firm that recruits and places job candidates in temporary, permanent and contract to hire positions at all skill levels. Such companies are frequently referred to as "headhunters."
Company officials told police the firm has generated confidential information about its business clients and job candidates, which is stored on a database at the company that is only accessible by selected employees.
The information is considered confidential and the company goes to great lengths to secure it, according to reports.
Company officials told police Jacobo admitted he used protected information obtained by the company for personal use and to profit from it, through his own company, Brooks Staffing.
The company decided to continue its investigation after Jacobo's firing, monitoring other company workers who had close relationships with him and that is when Corcoran's involvement was uncovered.
Company officials described Corcoran, an employee since February 2000, as "a high level employee with a large salary and benefit package," who also had unlimited access to the company's confidential and proprietary information as well as password access to the company's computer search engines.
According to police reports filed in the case, company officials were shocked at learning that Jacobo would continue to steal information from the company, even after being terminated, by seeking Corcoran's assistance.
Corcoran admitted to police he e-mailed a copy of a job description and the names of three potential clients that met the job requirements, reports said.
He told police he was to be paid 60 percent of the fee the fired man's company earned from placing the clients.
The clients were never placed and he was never paid, Corcoran told police.
He told police after he had sent the three names to the fired employee, he did not send any more.
Neither Corcoran nor Jacobo could be reached for comment. They did not return telephone calls left at their homes.
A company spokesman did not return calls for comment for this story. Andover attorney Ted Craney, who was retained by the company to investigate allegations about the two employees, also did not return telephone calls left at his office.
Brooks Staffing & Associates, is a limited liability company with offices at 800 Turnpike St. in North Andover. Christopher Driscoll is listed as the manager and resident agent.
Jacobo and the company are defendants in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Staffing Group in Suffolk Superior Court.
"The Staffing Group claims that Jacobo violated his non-competition agreement, breached his fiduciary duties to the Andover company and misappropriated trade secrets when he and Driscoll started their competing business while Jacobo was still employed as a manager at the company where he worked for eight years and made more than $100,000 annually, according to court documents," The Boston Business Journal reported several months ago.
