Case One: Green Machine, Inc.
Green Machine, Inc., a company devoted to producing eco-friendlyhousehold products, is a wholly owned subsidiary of ColossalCorporation. Green Machine's most famous and best-selling productis the Eco-Widget—a handheld, solar-powered device that recharges avariety of electronics on the go, including cell phones, laptops,and tablets. Colossal Corporation has uncovered an incident oftheft at Green Machine: Approximately one month ago, over 400Eco-Widgets were stolen from Green Machine's Adelphi, Marylandwarehouse.
Shortly after the theft was discovered, Colossal Corporation'sinternal investigator, Ivan, found an online advertisement for thesale of exactly 400 Eco-Widgets. Ivan called the contact on thewebsite and set up a meeting with the seller, Greg Smith. WhenIvan, under the guise of being an interested purchaser of thewidgets, inquired about Greg's distributor, Greg did not hesitateto reveal that he purchased the widgets from Rachel Jones, hislong-time business associate. Ivan inspected the 400 Eco-Widgets,and confirmed they were indeed the same products that were stolenfrom the warehouse. He then requested a price quote from Greg andasked Greg to hold the products for him for seven days. Gregagreed.
Ivan arranged a meeting with Rachel the very next day, duringwhich he pretended that he wanted to buy electronics from her. Heasked Rachel if she had any Eco-Widget distributors she couldrecommend. Rachel said that she works directly with a Green Machinesales agent named Sam Simpson, and that she recently purchased 400Eco-Widgets from him at a discounted price. Rachel also said thatSam is quite interested in expanding his business with her, andwould provide Ivan with a great deal.
After his meeting with Rachel, Ivan checked the personnelrecords at Green Machine and identified Sam Simpson as a low-levelwarehouse employee who has been with the company for over 10 years.Sam's personnel record is spotless, with no prior personnel issuesand no complaints. Sam is in charge of night security at thewarehouse, and has no history in sales. As a night security guard,Sam is responsible for protecting the warehouse from theft, and isnot permitted to sell products. After further investigation, Ivanfound company e-mails between Rachel and Sam in which Sam posed asa sales agent. Reading the e-mails, it became obvious that neitherRachel nor Greg knew that the 400 Eco-Widgets were stolen. Ivanthen collected video from all of Sam's shifts and was able tolocate a film of Sam packing the Eco-Widgets into his personal carand driving them out of the warehouse parking lot.
Your task is to research the legal issues surrounding the stolenproperty. It is up to you to decipher which laws have been broken,and what the potential remedies are.
Problem: The vice president wants you to prepare a narratedPowerPoint 10 pages to present this information to the seniorleadership team. Because of the sensitive nature of this case, thevice president has asked you to operate with total confidentialityand without involving the legal department.
