Word: erdman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Tecmar is one of a fast-growing legion of companies that manufacture supplementary products for use with the IBM personal computer, including hardware to enhance its performance. According to court papers filed by IBM, Erdman told Tecmar that he and some senior IBM technical personnel were planning to leave the company. Without telling IBM, they had already set up their own computer-equipment company, Bridge Technology, Inc. Erdman proposed to sell Tecmar some 40 designs for add-on products for the IBM personal computer, including plans for a so-called combination board that, among other things, would improve the machine...
...very highly placed in the company and had broad access to classified material. The accused: Lewis Eggebrecht, a senior engineer who was chief architect of the IBM personal computer, the company's fastest seller; Peter Stearns, another senior engineer, who headed an important product-development team; and William Erdman. an office-systems product-line manager...
...first hint that IBM had a serious new security problem came in an Aug. 12 phone call to the company from Martin Alpert, president of Tecmar, Inc., an electronics firm in Cleveland. Alpert said that his company had been approached by IBM's Erdman with an offer of what appeared to be confidential information. IBM officials persuaded Alpert to play along with Erdman and covertly tape their negotiations. IBM Security Director Richard Mainey planned the ruse and equipped Alpert with a recorder...
...Erdman and Alpert discussed the deal several times on the phone and once met in the IBM manager's Stamford, Conn., home. As Erdman talked, Alpert taped. The negotiations climaxed in a Sept. 4 meeting at Alpert's Cleveland office. This time, Erdman brought along Engineers Stearns and Eggebrecht, who described his knowledge of IBM product designs. At the end of the day, Erdman left a draft contract for Alpert to sign...
Nonetheless, some banking experts maintain that the agreement will not deter insider trading, but merely force the illegal transactions to be conducted in other banking havens, such as Liechtenstein, Panama or the Caribbean. Says Paul Erdman, a bestselling financial novelist (The Crash of 79, The Last Days of America), who spent ten months in jail for violating Swiss financial laws: "Insider trading will just have to be done a little more cleverly...