Three Renault SA employees who are accused of major ethical breaches will face legal action by the company, for acts serious enough to “threaten strategic assets,” the company’s chief lawyer said Thursday. The breaches are apparently linked to electric vehicles, France’s industry minister said.
Christian Husson, Renault’s head of legal and ethical affairs, said an investigation lasting several months had “enabled us to identify a body of converging evidence demonstrating that three group employees have committed misconduct that infringes Renault’s ethics and deliberately endangering the company’s assets.”
The three employees, one of whom sits on Renault’s management committee, have been suspended. That move, Mr. Husson said, “is designed to immediately protect the strategic, intellectual and technological assets of our company.”
People familiar with the situation said the three employees are suspected of having disseminated proprietary information about Renault’s electric vehicle projects outside the company. The high-level suspensions highlight how seriously car makers take the risk of corporate espionage, especially as they engage in a high-stakes race to develop technology that is different from traditional internal combustion engines.
Source: WallStreetJournal
