Nationwide Mortgage Can’t Escape Paramount’s Trade Secrets Suit

Nationwide Mortgage Bankers Inc. must face a trade secrets lawsuit alleging that it instructed competitor’s employees to copy and transfer confidential client information, including account passwords and banking history, before poaching them.

Paramount Residential Mortgage Group Inc. sufficiently alleged what trade secrets were misappropriated and that Nationwide knowingly accessed its computers without authorization, the US District Court for the District of New Jersey said Wednesday.

Nationwide allegedly used the influence of former Paramount executives Bob Wampler and Joe Heister, while they still worked at Paramount, to poach employees and encourage them to violate their confidentiality and nonsolicitation agreements, according to ...