HOLLYWOOD, Md. (Feb. 24, 2022)—St. Mary's County Deputy State's Attorney Daniel J. White and his brother
Michael White, St. Mary's Orphan's Court
judge are accused of embezzling money and trade secrets from a company they were once partners in, according to a civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
The brothers, along with several others, are accused of money laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud by the chief executive of the plaintiff—John White of Compass Marketing, Inc.—of stealing not only money but trade secrets to start up their own firm known as Flywheel Digital, LLC.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants used these ill-gotten funds and trade secrets to build up the opposing e-commerce business and sell it to a concern in the United Kingdom for up to $400 million.
The U.K. company, Ascentical has also been named as a defendant.
Though the case has been filed in federal court, it is a civil case and not a criminal matter.
According to the legal brief filed Feb. 14, Compass is a marketing company founded in 1998 "prior to the rise of e-commerce platforms that fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with and purchase retail goods."
In 2011 it hired James DiPaula and Patrick Miller, also named as defendants, to run its e-commerce team, the lawsuit claims, and they became "trusted executives."
Compass did not know that DiPaula and Miller had launched Flywheel in 2014 and then subsequently resigned, taking much of the e-commerce employee talent with them who had been working for Compass, the lawsuit stated.
This was done using embezzled funds, the lawsuit alleges, and "trade secret information and proprietary business know how that rightfully belonged to Compass following more than a decade of intensive and expensive research and development."
Those embezzled funds were originally procured by Daniel White and Michael White, the law suit alleges, while all the defendants named in the suit concealed the alleged behavior so well that Compass personnel did not learn of it until 2020.
Before being dismissed by Compass, Daniel White served as the company's legal counsel, the lawsuit states, while Michael White was Vice President of Operations and Comptroller of Compass.
Both men owned 150 shares of Compass, legal documents state, or a 16.6 percent share of the company.
Neither Daniel White nor Michael White responded to requests for comment from The County Times.
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