Mphasis sues Coforge in US court over employee hiring, client exposure claims

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Blackstone-owned Mphasis Ltd has filed a lawsuit in a US court against rival Coforge Ltd, accusing the Noida-based IT services firm of hiring its employees in violation of contractual restrictions and gaining access to confidential client information.The Bengaluru-based company, which reported $1.8 billion in revenue last year, has also named its former vice president Brijesh Khergamker as a party in the case filed in a Colorado court.

Mphasis alleges Khergamker breached his employment agreement by joining a rival firm less than a year after leaving the company.“Coforge has initiated a campaign of recruiting Mphasis employees to obtain an unfair competitive advantage in the design, implementation, and maintenance of information technology services and digital solutions,” read Mphasis’s lawsuit filed on 31 March and which appeared in the public database last week.“Defendants’ actions give Coforge an unfair business advantage in the information technology services industry at Mphasis’ expense by giving Coforge access to Mphasis’ confidential Information, trade secrets, and information pertaining to its customers without expending any time or resources,” the lawsuit added.Coforge, which nudged past Mphasis last year to become the country’s seventh largest IT services firm, ended with $1.87 billion in revenue, a 29.2% growth, the fastest among all large and small IT services firms.Khergamker left Mphasis in July last year and joined Coforge in the same month, which, according to Mphasis, violates a contractual restriction that bars employees from working for rivals for up to a year.According to the lawsuit, Khergamker and another Mphasis executive, handled IT and