from The Detroit News
Detroit— The FBI searched Ford Motor Co.’s world headquarters while investigating one of the automaker’s engineers and seized listening devices, computers and financial records, according to search warrants obtained by The News on Thursday.
A lawyer for the mechanical engineer said Ford’s security team feared she was stealing trade secrets by hiding secret recording devices in conference rooms at the Dearborn automaker’s headquarters, nicknamed the Glass House.
Court records that would explain why the FBI had probable cause to search Ford and the engineer’s home are sealed in federal court. The government’s lawyer on the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel, heads the National Security Unit in Detroit, successfully prosecuted underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and specializes in cases involving espionage, counter-terrorism and terrorism financing, among others.
Searching a Fortune 500 company’s world headquarters instead of issuing a subpoena is a rare step and could indicate investigators were worried about someone destroying evidence, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and a former federal prosecutor.
“If it’s an economic espionage case or trade secrets case, that rarely involves one individual,” Henning said. “So the concern is if you send a subpoena and ask for recording devices, those things can be erased.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI declined comment Thursday. A Ford spokeswoman, Susan Krusel, declined to discuss the investigation in detail, but said Ford is not a target. “Ford and the FBI are working together on a joint investigation involving a former employee,” she said. “As this is an ongoing investigation, we are not able to provide additional details.”
The search warrants show the FBI searched Ford’s headquarters July 11 and agents had permission to search the entire facility. Agents were authorized to seize digital and electronic recording devices given to Ford representatives by Wyandotte resident and former Ford engineer Sharon Leach, emails and other records, according to a copy of one search warrant.
The search at Ford’s headquarters came three weeks after FBI agents raided Leach’s home on St. John Street and seized more than two dozen items, according to a search warrant inventory obtained by The News.
She was fired recently after Ford’s security team discovered recording devices planted in the automaker’s meeting rooms, her lawyer Marshall Tauber said.
The devices were installed before meetings but could not be easily removed, her lawyer said. The audio devices were left in the conference rooms and unintentionally recorded other meetings. “It was very difficult to remove them when other people were in the same room,” Tauber said. “That leads to Ford Motor security finding this activity suspicious.”
The devices were never installed in the Board of Directors conference room, he said. “She was a low-level engineer,” Tauber said. “Her salary wasn’t even $120,000.”
Leach was fired in June after she admitted using the devices, her lawyer said. “She had one in her purse and said ‘here it is,’ ” Tauber said.
In all, Leach gave Ford security eight Sansa recording devices, her lawyer said. Those are the same devices listed on the FBI’s search warrant on July 11, Tauber said.