Alex Trelinski
TWO former Javea real estate company workers who set up their own firm have been accused of stealing confidential information to drum up their own client base and sales.
Oliver Koch and Maeva Varlet allegedly formed Koch & Varlet Luxury Realtors while still working for Miralbo Urbana which builds and sells luxury homes.
Prosecutors say they sold villas on behalf of their own company while still on the Miralbo Urbana payroll by diverting customers to their enterprise.
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They were ‘found out’ when a client mistakenly sent a payment to Miralbo Urbana, rather than to the couple.
A Denia judge imposed a high joint-bail figure for Koch and Varlet- totalling €1.9 million.
Prosecutors want them jailed for a total of three-and-a-half years each for fraud and disclosing business secrets.
The trial- at a date to be set- will be held in Benidorm.
Miralbo Urbana denounced Koch and Varlet after they allegedly broke signed confidentiality and trust pledges with the company manager.
They claim they discovered ‘fraudulent manoeuvres aimed at appropriating customers and the business’.
The duo had access to all of the company’s databases, contacts, strategy, and customers.
The indictment states that they set up a new firm, Koch & Varlet Luxury Realtors, which was the identical field of business carried out by Miralbo Urbana.
They are accused of ‘aiming to obtaining illicit financial benefit, empty part of the stored emails, and taking information on clients and projects’.
Koch and Varlet vehemently deny the charges.
