A new filing from DraftKings makes some serious allegations against former employee Mike Hermalyn.
In a new motion for a preliminary injunction filed in the Massachusetts District Court, DraftKings said it had come upon new information that proves Hermalyn stole company documents and attempted to persuade employees of the company to defect to Fanatics with him.
“Defendant knowingly and intentionally downloaded numerous documents containing DraftKings’ (“DK”) confidential information and trade secrets to his personal devices; solicited key DK employees and customers; attempted to cover his tracks by destroying evidence of his misconduct and lying in his sworn declarations, interrogatories, and deposition testimony; and failed to return all of DK’s confidential information as required by the TRO. Defendant’s actions were brazen, egregious and indefensible,” the motion reads.
The motion also claims that, at the start of the year, Hermalyn was the subject of an internal investigation that eventually led to him being put on a personal improvement plan, losing pay and forfeiting both his company credit card and his assistant. While waiting for the results of the investigation, he allegedly reached out to Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin about a position and began downloading numerous confidential documents to non-DraftKings devices before wiping his personal text messages and deleting his browser history.
Once Hermalyn left the company on Feb. 1, he was said to be staying at Rubin’s home in Los Angeles and was accessing some of the downloaded documents. Additionally, the motion claims he reached out to two DraftKings employees and offered them jobs at Fanatics.
“He offered millions of dollars in compensation, directed them to apply for specific openings with Fanatics and advised them he was acting with Fanatics’ CEO’s imprimatur,” the motion said.
The two employees, Andrew Larracy and Hayden Metz, signed sworn affidavits that they spent multiple hours on the phone with Hermalyn during which he offered them jobs at Fanatics. A VIP customer from DraftKings also says that Hermalyn contacted him to let him know about his new job.
DraftKings is once again seeking to prevent Hermalyn from continuing to work for Fanatics until the case is resolved. A judge previously granted a temporary restraining order in part on Hermalyn’s employment with the company, stating he could not solicit customers from DraftKings, employees from DraftKings or share any confidential DraftKings materials.
Meanwhile, Hermalyn is challenging his non-compete with DraftKings in a California court where he now resides.
