Wipro files complaint against ex-senior VP for contract breach

BENGALURU:

Wipro

has filed a complaint against

Mohd Haque

, its former senior vice-president (SVP) and head of healthcare and medical devices for the Americas, for violating non-compete covenants in his employment contract by joining Wipro’s direct competitor, Cognizant, as the SVP and business unit head for life sciences, before August 1 this year. Wipro has also alleged that he was in possession of confidential information whereby he emailed "seven files" containing confidential information from his personal Gmail account that was flagged off by its IT team.
TOI had reported about Haque joining Cognizant in two articles published in September and October. Wipro has referenced The Times of India’s article in the facts related to the case. Wipro has demanded a jury trial. When TOI reached out to Wipro, the company said it does not comment on matters that are sub-judice.
Haque joined Wipro in 2010 as VP of enterprise application services in Bengaluru. Haque, a two-decade veteran at Wipro, was promoted as SVP and sector head for healthcare and medical devices for the Americas last year. He was managing a team of 21,000 people responsible for P&L, sales, strategy, delivery, consulting, and account management.
Upon Haque’s promotion to the role of Wipro’s SVP and localization as a US employee, he was eligible to receive more than $1 million in equity awards over many years. Haque, Wipro’s complaint showed, that he agreed to certain restrictions on his post-employment activities, including not to work for a small set of Wipro competitors for twelve months after his employment ended.

Each of the equity agreements contains a non-competition covenant in the employment agreement prohibiting employment with Cognizant for the twelve months post-employment.
Wipro also alleged that Haque uploaded multiple Wipro files and sent them outside Wipro to his personal email account. “Shortly before his resignation was to be effective, Haque surreptitiously uploaded multiple Wipro files and sent them outside Wipro to his personal email account. Haque also misrepresented his intentions to Wipro on multiple occasions, untruthfully telling the Company that he was not planning to work at Cognizant. To date, Haque has not even updated his LinkedIn to reflect his new employment,” Wipro said in its complaint against him filed in a US court.

Haque confirmed that his last day would be June 30 this year, but he continued working during his notice period and continued to use and rely on Wipro’s confidential information. “On or about June 20, 2023, just as Haque was nearing the end of his contractual notice period (and less than two weeks before his self-determined resignation date), Haque uploaded and, upon information and belief, emailed from his personal Gmail account, seven Wipro files (collectively, the “Files”), in direct violation of the terms of his Employment Agreement,” the complaint said.
Wipro’s IT systems flagged Haque’s actions, and the company wrote to Haque on June 22 alerting him that Wipro was aware of his violation of company policy and his contractual obligations, and reminding Haque of his post-termination restrictive covenants, including the non-competition covenants.
Wipro said it asked Haque before and after his resignation whether he was going to work for Cognizant. Haque, each time, denied that he was going to work for Cognizant. Wipro also asked Haque to sign a written certification confirming that he was not still in possession of any Wipro confidential information and that he had either returned or deleted permanently all such information. Haque, the complaint said, refused to sign the certification. Wipro's counsel sent Haque a letter on September 29 reminding him of his contractual obligations to Wipro and the consequences for his breaches.
Haque’s counsel responded by letter on October 6 informing Wipro that the former had been employed by Cognizant since August 1 after allegedly accepting an employment offer in July 2023 to become Cognizant’s chief commercial officer, the complaint showed.
Wipro said Haque’s employment with Cognizant is a clear breach of his non-competition covenants due to Cognizant’s status as a direct competitor of Wipro, Haque’s high-level, commercial role for Cognizant which, upon information and belief, will make Haque responsible for all four of Cognizant’s business segments, including health sciences (which he was responsible for at Wipro).
As per the terms of his employment agreement, Haque agreed “to pay Wipro such sums as would be equivalent to his gross remuneration earned by him during the last twelve (12) months of service with the company” if he violated his noncompete covenant. Haque, Wipro said, acknowledged this consequence of his breach when reviewing the employment agreement in 2021."
Haque also agreed that he would “be liable to pay Wipro” the value of the ADS or multiplying the total number of ADSs or PSUs awarded by the share price on the date of the award. He has not repaid Wipro the remuneration he received during the last twelve months of his employment, nor has he paid the company the value of the ADS and PSU awards, the complaint said.