A former Ford engineer suspected of bugging conference rooms and leaking company secrets has attracted a federal investigation, including a surprise FBI search of the company’s entire Dearborn headquarters.
The case, uncovered by The Detroit News this morning, reveals search warrants from an unannounced FBI visit two weeks ago to recover eight electronic recording devices that Sharon Leach, 43, had allegedly hidden under conference-room tables. Leach, a mechanical engineer and 17-year employee with a doctorate, was fired in June after company security found the devices. Just three weeks before the July 11 search, the FBI had raided Leach’s home and took computers, thumb drives, and financial records, according to the News. Exactly why the FBI is even involved is a mystery and no charges have been filed. No one but Leach’s lawyer, Marshall Tauber, is willing to comment.
Tauber said his client was “insecure about her note-taking” and used the hidden devices only to transcribe meetings, not to snoop on other conversations. While Tauber admitted it all looks suspicious to Ford, he said she erased the recorders and has nothing to hide except an apparently poor memory.
“I think you’re dealing with a person who was seeing how sharp the new kids are and maybe feeling a need to keep up with them,” Tauber said to the News. “And maybe she realized that she’s not as attentive as she once was and needs a little assistance. Maybe her memory was failing her on the technology end but she didn’t want to admit it.”
Whatever the feds are brewing can’t bode well for Leach. Assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Tukel, who investigates terrorist and export crimes as chief of the National Security Unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office Michigan district, is leading the case. In 2012, he sent the Nigerian underwear bomber to life in prison.
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