BURR & FORMAN
LLPOn March 30, 1999, a federal district court in Montgomery, Alabama, awarded the AGES Group, L.P. consent judgments totaling $8 million dollars against Raytheon Aerospace Company, Inc. and The Wackenhut Corporation. In addition, Raytheon Aerospace agreed to repurchase $13 million worth of aircraft parts inventory from AGES at a $2 million profit to AGES. The Honorable W. Harold Albritton, III, Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, entered the judgments in favor of AGES following negotiations between both parties. The judgments marked the end of a lengthy 2 ½ year lawsuit that involved allegations of corporate espionage, illegal wire tapping, and theft of secret business documents all connected with the competitive bid for a government contract worth approximately $450 million.
Both Raytheon Aerospace and AGES are in the aircraft servicing business. In 1996 both companies were competing for the right to service U.S. military C-12 aircraft under a lucrative government contract valued at over $450 million, known as the Life Cycle Contractor Support ("LCCS") contract. Under the terms of the government contract bid process, all government bids were to be kept strictly confidential. AGES had hired a company in Slocomb, Alabama, that specialized in preparing government contract bids, The Libertatia Associates, to help prepare its bid on the LCCS contract.
AGES’ lawsuit alleged that during the summer of 1996 Raytheon Aerospace hired Wackenhut to send private investigators to spy and eavesdrop on Libertatia while it was preparing AGES’ bid proposal. AGES claimed that the investigators illegally monitored and intercepted communications from Libertatia’s office using sophisticated electronic eavesdropping equipment in order to acquire AGES’ confidential bid pricing information only days before the LCCS contract bids were due to be submitted to the government. The lawsuit also alleged that the Wackenhut investigators entered Libertatia’s office and stole AGES’ confidential bid pricing information and turned it over to Raytheon Aerospace.
Over half a dozen eye-witnesses in Slocomb, Alabama saw Wackenhut’s investigators stakeout and monitor Libertatia’s office in Slocomb for three days in July, 1996, from at least two different vehicles parked in front of the office. Five of these local residents observed the investigators wearing headphones and taking notes, and one saw a reel to reel tape recorder being used inside their car. Other eye-witnesses observed a "parabolic microphone" and a "shot gun microphone" in the investigator’s vehicles at different times during the surveillance. According to experts, both types of these devices can be used to pick up, isolate, and record conversations at a distance. The Wackenhut investigators denied ever wearing headphones during the surveillance or having or using any other electronic eavesdropping equipment such as a reel to reel recorder or a shot gun or parabolic microphone.
One eye-witness also saw what he thought was a flat, oval-shaped, antenna hidden behind a sunscreen in one of the investigator’s cars. According to several experts, this type of antenna is used in conjunction with short range electronic transmitting devices, commonly known as "bugs." Experts state that such "bugging devices" commonly have very short ranges and in order to be received the antenna must be located close to the building being bugged. In this case, eye-witnesses observed the investigators parked directly in front of Libertatia’s office.
Additionally, two local residents observed an unknown woman walk out of Libertatia’s office with papers in her hand, confer with one of the Wackenhut investigators parked in front of the office, and then leave in a separate car with the investigator following behind. The Wackenhut investigators claimed to have never seen such a woman. An officer of Libertatia later identified the unknown woman as being associated with Wackenhut. Shortly after Wackenhut’s surveillance, Libertatia discovered documents missing from its office.
AGES’ lawsuit is not the first time that Wackenhut and Raytheon have been embroiled in allegations of misconduct. In 1991, a committee of the United States House of Representatives investigated Wackenhut for electronic surveillance conducted on behalf of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. After several days of hearings, this Committee concluded that Wackenhut may have violated federal and state laws concerning surveillance and eavesdropping. Additionally, Raytheon Aerospace’s parent company pled guilty in 1990 to illegally conveying a "secret" document from the Department of Defense to an employee of another defense contractor.
AGES’ lawsuit was set for a four week trial to begin on March 29, 1999. However, Raytheon Aerospace and Wackenhut agreed for judgments totaling $8 million to be entered on AGES’ claims prior to trial. AGES was represented by the Birmingham office of Burr & Forman LLP. Raytheon Aerospace and Wackenhut were represented by the law firms of Bradley, Arant Rose & White, LLP and Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C., respectively, both also located in Birmingham, Alabama.