A judge temporarily ordered the employees of a newly formed Victoria marketing company not to communicate with the clients of their former employer. That previous employer, Affect Digital Media, was formed in 2012 and is owned by the Victoria Advocate Publishing Co., which filed a lawsuit against ThriveFuel Friday. The lawsuit, which claims ThriveFuel employees stole proprietary information from ADM, seeks at least $1 million, as well as attorney fees, the website Victoria Advocate writes.
“This case is brought to rectify the equivalent of an ‘inside-job’ bank robbery of ADM’s former officers and employees,” the lawsuit reads. “Regrettably, the heist is over. Now, the defendants must be stopped from profiting off the plaintiffs’ stolen goods.”
According to the lawsuit, all but two ADM employees resigned Aug. 20 to form ThriveFuel, a competing marketing firm. ThriveFuel, which has offices in Victoria and Corpus Christi, specializes in marketing “traditional media to digital media and everything in between,” according to the company’s website.
“By itself, this is perfectly legal − however, the full story is far more sinister,” reads the lawsuit, which adds, “This is not a case brought out of unwarranted fear of honest competition.” Stephen Fox, a Dallas attorney representing the Victoria Advocate Publishing Company and its affiliates, declined Tuesday to comment beyond the lawsuit.
The lawsuit names as defendants Dan Easton, former Victoria Advocate publisher and CEO of ADM; Jason Holmes, former president of ADM; and 10 other former ADM employees who resigned to form ThriveFuel.
According to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, Easton and Holmes are managing members of ThriveFuel. Both men declined to comment Tuesday.
Easton is represented by Patrick Cullen, a Victoria attorney. Cullen could not be reached for comment.
Crossroads attorney Alex Hernandez Jr., said Tuesday that he was representing Holmes, but he added he was unprepared to comment about the case. Hernandez said he was determining whether he would represent the remaining 10 ThriveFuel employees.
During the months leading up to their resignations, according to the lawsuit, the employees stole lists of current and prospective clients, product service plans, methodologies, company email passwords, passwords to clients’ websites, computer programs and confidential information, which were used to form the core of their new business, ThriveFuel.
Victoria Advocate Publishing Co. announced Aug. 20 that it had merged Affect Digital Media, or ADM, with another newspaper division, Advocate Digital Services. That is the same day the 12 ADM employees resigned.
“When ADM asked for its own materials back, the defendant employees, in so many words, told ADM to ‘pound sand,’” the lawsuit reads. “Stated another way, the defendant employees − not satisfied with having robbed plaintiff’s house blind − refuse to return the keys to the house.”
The lawsuit claims ThriveFuel employees took the proprietary information and resources almost a year after Holmes and Easton made a proposal to ADM’s board of directors to purchase 51 percent of the business and separate it from its parent and affiliate companies, which includes the Victoria Advocate Publishing Co., Texas Community Media and M. Roberts Media.
ADM’s board made efforts to make that separation in part by changing its name from “Advocate Digital Media” to “Affect Digital Media” in January, according the lawsuit. When presented with a proposed separation agreement that included a purchase price determined by a third-party appraiser, Easton and Holmes did not sign. Easton hired the appraiser.
In July, about a month before the employees resigned to form ThriveFuel, ADM’s board gave Easton and Holmes a three-week deadline to purchase the company.
“Easton and Holmes then went radio-silent,” the lawsuit reads.
Aug. 17, Jennifer Love, who served as vice president of sales for Affect Digital Media and now holds that title with ThriveFuel, forwarded an email containing a list of ADM’s top 40 clients in an effort to convince them to move their business to ThriveFuel, the lawsuit claims.
“The ones I listed are within the top 40 accounts so these are top priority. ... Robert and I will be working with Jason on explanations and how to handle current contracts,” the email reads. Representatives of the Victoria Advocate Publishing Co. became aware of the email after Love accidentally forwarded it to a company representative, the lawsuit claims.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims ThriveFuel employees actively prevented ADM from working with its clients by stealing and refusing to return passwords required to manage clients’ websites.
Thursday, a major ADM client called to report it had just received a phone call from ThriveFuel. According to the lawsuit, ThriveFuel threatened that the client’s website would go down if a new contract was not signed with ThriveFuel. “This is not fair competition,” the lawsuit reads. “It is, more accurately, the type of ‘protection’ services offered by Hollywood-movie mobsters.”
Friday, District Judge Stephen Williams granted the temporary restraining order request by the Victoria Advocate Publishing Co. and its fellow plaintiffs.
Until its Sept. 7 expiration, the restraining order prevents ThriveFuel employees from communicating and working with any former or prospective customers of ADM’s from the past two years. It also forbids ThriveFuel employees from accessing or using any information or software belonging to ADM.
A temporary restraining order hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday at the Victoria County Courthouse.
