CareCentrix has filed a corporate espionage suit against Signify Health, alleging the digital health company poached an executive in an effort to obtain trade secrets.
In the suit unsealed this week, CareCentrix claims that Signify's leadership team "targeted, recruited, and hired former CareCentrix executive Marcus Lanznar in a covert scheme that succeeded in providing access to CareCentrix’s confidential information and trade secrets" and that Lanznar fed information to Signify by working covertly with them while still employed at CareCentrix.
Lanznar, an executive working on CareCentrix's post-acute care program, funneled trade secrets on a number of the company's business lines while failing to disclose his dual employment, CareCentrix alleges.
"On multiple occasions, Lanznar repackaged and shared inside information with Signify on the very same day he received it from CareCentrix," according to the lawsuit. "Lanznar hid his misdeeds with a series of lies and cover-ups, including embedding photos of CareCentrix documents in substantive work product secretly sent to Signify."
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In a statement to Fierce Healthcare, Signify said it plans to "vigorously defend" itself against the suit.
"As a matter of policy, we do not comment on pending lawsuits or legal proceedings," Signify said. "However, we dispute the claims asserted by CareCentrix and intend to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."
Lanznar did not disclose his employment with Signify for more than three months, according to the lawsuit. CareCentrix said on his last day of employment with the company, he destroyed the data on his company-issued cellphone in order to cover his tracks.
At the same time, Signify was gearing up to go public. The company held its initial public offering last month, raising $564 million.
CareCentrix alleges that the company was complicit in the corporate espionage in an effort to get a leg-up for its IPO.
"Signify facilitated and encouraged Lanznar’s corporate espionage and theft of CareCentrix’s trade secrets and confidential information in advance of its initial public offering, which it is now using to its competitive advantage in relation to CareCentrix’s Customers, prospective customers, and members," according to the lawsuit.
CareCentrix is seeking financial damages as well as a restraining order that would prevent Lanzar from reaching out to the company's business partners in an effort to interfere with their work, according to the suit.