By HOUSTON HARWOOD and ANNA WILDER of New Take Florida news assistance, Fresh new Choose Florida, a information assistance of the University of Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Staff members of a outstanding Gainesville professional genuine estate agency whose workplaces have been stormed by an armed SWAT workforce this summer season could deal with felony charges soon after a legal investigation claimed they bilked their previous employer out of a cache of confidential paperwork and offers well worth millions.

In accordance to sworn grievances filed late Tuesday and early Wednesday in Alachua County Circuit Courtroom, police detectives accused Colliers International workers Lauren Edwards, 24, Daniel Drotos, 34, and Rory Causseaux, 59, of stealing dozens of trade techniques and proprietary documents and $2 million value of deals from Bosshardt Realty Expert services, their former employer.

The trio is billed with felony theft or embezzlement of trade secrets and felony scheming to defraud and attain home. Michael Ryals, 65, who is listed as government director on the company’s website, is named as a co-defendant in Edwards’ and Drotos’ complaints.

Edwards did not response her cellular phone or reply to an electronic mail about the legal criticism. A message still left with her attorney’s secretary was not returned prior to publication.

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Bosshardt Realty and Colliers International, two of the area’s most popular actual estate companies, have been embroiled in a two-year lawful dispute more than allegations that Aaron Bosshardt, the head of Bosshardt Realty, withheld hundreds of countless numbers of dollars in unpaid commissions owed to Drotos and Ryals.

On June 25, next the very publicized SWAT raid, Drotos and Ryals filed a next lawsuit alleging that Bosshardt abused the lawful system by offering phony and defamatory facts to regulation enforcement that interfered with existing litigation and inflicted emotional distress.

Melissa Redon, a internet marketing executive at Bosshardt Realty, explained the firm uncovered proof of doc theft although making ready to reply to Drotos’ and Ryals’ civil claims that Bosshardt shorted them on commission payments. She stated Aaron Bosshardt submitted a typical law enforcement report and that he acquired no special therapy from local law enforcement.

“It’s been difficult to not test to convey to our side of the tale, even in just our brokerage to sort of safeguard our brokers and defend the integrity of the investigation, we haven’t been able to deliver any authentic information,” Redon said.

It’s unclear how the recently unveiled prison rates will influence Drotos’ and Ryals’ civil lawsuits.

The new criticism in opposition to Edwards alleges that in January 2019, two months in advance of the group ended its work contract with Bosshardt, Drotos despatched a ask for to Appfiles, Bosshardt’s file company company, asking for guidelines on how to download and transfer company paperwork to an external tough travel. Appfiles rebuffed Drotos’ inquiry and redirected him to Bosshardt.

According to detectives, Drotos under no circumstances obtained authorization from Bosshardt to duplicate or access the data files. Just one month later, in reaction to an e-mail from Edwards, investigators say Drotos despatched Edwards a listing of coveted files and directed her to download them. Authorities say Edwards afterwards transferred approximately 160 inner files from Bosshardt’s file server to her private Gmail account.

Christian Oldenburg, Colliers’ government controlling director, also instructed Edwards to e mail the documents to him so he could disseminate them to the rest of the group, the court data claimed. Oldenburg has not been named as a defendant in any of the open cases. He did not respond to cellphone phone calls Wednesday relating to the criminal complaint.

In October 2020, detectives received a research warrant for Edwards’ e mail records and identified that she had later on forwarded those people very same data files to Drotos, Ryals and other associates of the Drotos-Ryals Group at Colliers Global.

Among the documents learned all through the lookup were contracts, fee sheets, economical records, authorized facts, listings and specific lists of sellers and future purchasers.

Investigators mentioned the files would have supplied Drotos and Ryals with an unfair company benefit.

Lawyer Ron Kozlowski, who signifies Drotos and Ryals, reported he has faith in the investigative course of action but disputes the notion that his customers stole trade insider secrets.

“This is commercial real estate,” Kozlowski explained. “In my encounter, I really do not even know what a trade mystery is in terms of business actual estate underneath the facts that we have right here. There ended up no trade strategies that Mr. Ryals and Mr. Drotos could’ve taken with them from Bosshardt.”

Bosshardt claims he’s remained peaceful till now about the problem involving his previous staff members to defend the investigative approach.

“We have been patiently awaiting the reality to arrive out,” Aaron Bosshardt stated. “We are grateful for the time and vitality this situation has been supplied. None of this has been quick, but we are hopeful that the summary is in close proximity to and justice will be served.”

No court docket dates have still been established for the conditions, which Gainesville law enforcement referred to the State Attorney’s Place of work, who will upcoming make a decision regardless of whether to prosecute them.

This tale was created by Clean Get Florida, a news service of the College of Florida College or university of Journalism and Communications. The reporters can be achieved at walter.harwood@ufl.edu and annawilder@ufl.edu.

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