Contract Clash and a Digital Trail
According to the complaint, Nvidia beat Valeo for a contract with a major automaker to develop software powering advanced parking and driving assistance. Valeo, which had supplied that automaker with earlier hardware and software, was retained to provide ultrasonic sensors. The deal required the two companies to collaborate virtually.
Soon after the automaker chose Nvidia, Valeo alleged that then-employee Mohammad Moniruzzaman downloaded Valeo’s entire advanced driving source code without authorization by routing access through his personal email account.
Valeo said Moniruzzaman took tens of thousands of files and roughly 6 gigabytes of source code, along with numerous Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs and spreadsheets explaining the technology.
From Valeo to Nvidia — and a Screen Share Slip
Moniruzzaman left Valeo in August 2021 to join Nvidia, where he rose to a senior role working on software for the same automaker project, the complaint said.
His actions initially went unnoticed for about six months. That changed during a March 2022 virtual collaboration meeting when Moniruzzaman minimized a shared PowerPoint and briefly exposed a file containing Valeo’s source code.
“So brazen was Mr. Moniruzzaman’s theft, the file path on his screen still read ‘ValeoDocs,’” Valeo alleged.
Participants immediately recognized the code and captured a screenshot. By the time Moniruzzaman realized what had happened, Valeo said, it was too late.
