The legal battle between aviation magnate Farhad Azima and private investigator Nicholas Del Rosso has taken a new twist as a federal judge demanded deeper scrutiny into a central question: Does Azima actually own the trade secrets he claims were hacked and exposed?
In an order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge William L. Osteen Jr. said he was “concerned” by both parties’ failure to fully address whether Azima has statutory standing under the North Carolina Trade Secrets Protection Act. The judge called for supplemental briefing from both Azima and Del Rosso, whose investigative firm Vital Management Services Inc. is also a defendant.
The Hacked Secrets That Might Not Be His?
The case centers on allegations that Del Rosso orchestrated a targeted cyberattack on Azima’s email accounts, leaking sensitive business information online in a smear campaign allegedly triggered by Azima’s soured business deal with the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates.
Azima claims the fund and its legal counsel, Dechert LLP, hired Del Rosso to breach his data and weaponize it, with hacked documents surfacing on the web in 2018 and 2019. Though Azima settled his claims against Dechert in a U.K. court last year, his U.S. case against Del Rosso lives on, focusing now on trade secret misappropriation and civil conspiracy.
But the issue now gripping the court is whether Azima can prove he legally “owns” the trade secrets in question.
