BOSTON – Fiserv filed suit in federal court here last week claiming a senior executive laid off from its CheckFree unit took a confidential customer list with him and is now using it to solicit customers on behalf of a competitor, Charles River Systems.
Fiserv claims that Daniel Papagni, who served a executive vice president of CheckFree until he was laid off in July 2008, violated a confidentiality agreement and non-compete contract when he went to work for Charles River soon after provided the second company with a customer list and other critical information for its APL portfolio management software platform. Because of the competitive nature of the business, Fiserv said it takes great care to protect customer lists and other proprietary information, requiring employees to sign non-solicitation, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements.
Fiserv said when it acquired CheckFree in 2007 it had all CheckFree employees, including Papagni, reaffirm their confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements. Under a severance deal when he was laid off, Papagni received six-months’ pay and agreed to notify Fiserv if he went to work for a competitor. "At some time in 2008 or early 2009, in plain violation of his non-competition obligations to Fiserv, Papagni began work at Charles River as a relationship manager in its New York office," said the suit. Soon after, according to the suit, he provided Charles River and its sales force with Fiserv’s APL client list. In attempt to conceal the source of the information, Charles River identified the source of the list on its database as "trade show," the suit states.
Fiserv is asking the court for an injunction preventing Charles River from using the customer list and for monetary damages.
Attorneys for Charles River did not return phone calls seeking comment last week.
