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Research Paper On Coca Cola V. Williams Trial

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Coca-Cola is one of America’s most popular soda companies. In 2007, an employee Joya Williams was sentenced to 8 years in prison for trading secrets to a rival soda company. There were also two other accomplices that were charged with crimes as well. The trio was caught as the rival company wrote a letter to advise Coca-Cola what was going on. Joya Williams was the secretary in the global branding department. She was in deep debt, unhappy with her job and trying to find her a big payday. Ms. Williams sent a letter to Pepsi offering Coca-Cola’s trade secrets to the highest bidder or the sum of 1.5 million dollars. Coca-Cola was working on a new product that was still in development called Project Lancelot. Ms. Williams was on video still secret documents and smuggling products out in her pocketbook. Once Coca-Cola became aware of the situation, the notified…show more content…
Williams along with her partners were charged with wire fraud, unlawfully stealing and selling trade secrets from Coca-Cola, and conspiracy. During the court proceedings, witnesses testified that Ms. Williams was not a threat to society. Ms. Williams also stated that she did not feel that she committed a crime of any sorts. Ms. Williams stated “this was a defining moment in her life”. The jury was deadlocked at first and ordered to come up with a decision. They finally decided on a guilty verdict. The sentencing guidelines for this charge is usually 5 or 6 years. As the judge decided Ms. Williams’s sentence, he decided to not follow the sentencing guidelines. The judge indicated that this offense should cannot be tolerated in society. He has not seen a case in 25 years that has so much obstruction of justice. Therefore landing Ms. Williams the 8 years sentence she received. Ms. Williams’ team tried to appeal the decision, but the U.S. Appeal court upheld the decision as well. The court decided that based on the harm Coca-Cola could have suffered if the deal had actually went
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