MIAMI LAKES, Fla. – Over the span of twenty years, Catalina Morales labored her approach up from bottle filler to company operations supervisor at a Miami Lakes cosmetics producer sooner than leaving remaining yr.
Police accuse the 43-year-old of stealing industry secrets and techniques and uncooked fabrics from LaDove, Inc. for her own industry, promoting a few of her now-former employer’s merchandise below the title of her own corporate.
Authorities arrested Morales, of Miramar, on Tuesday.
According to police, in live performance together with her husband, Morales stole a complete of $800,000 price of “trade secrets, cosmetic formulas, raw materials, finished products and packaging materials” from LaDove, positioned at 5701 Miami Lakes Drive, for her own corporate, Volare Filler Solutions, Inc., primarily based at 2440 W. eightieth St. in Hialeah.
Morales labored for LaDove from Oct. 11, 2001 to July 5, 2023. She arrange Volare in 2019, police mentioned.
A Miami-Dade police record states that the investigation started in December after a LaDove government used to be approached by way of the spouse of a person who Morales employed at Volare, providing up information on thefts from LaDove. Police would later interview her husband.
LaDove then employed a personal detective company, which surveilled more than one Hialeah warehouses owned by way of Volare, police mentioned.
The record states that at 2440 W. eightieth St., the non-public investigator videotaped a chain of totes, described as “large plastic containers used to store liquids used in the dispensing and mixing process,” together with “drums, cardboard boxes, and other raw materials” recognized by way of a LaDove government as belongings of LaDove.
The totes integrated paperwork with LaDove’s emblem on it, police mentioned.
“The totes and other materials were marked in the same form and fashion in which LaDove marks their inventory,” a detective wrote within the record.
Police interviewed the person who they mentioned labored for Morales and acted as a courier.
According to the arrest record, he advised investigators that he labored for Volare from March 2020 to December 2023.
“During his employment, he initially believed Volare and LaDove were the same company, due to the way products would come and go without any questions,” detectives wrote.
Authorities mentioned the person gained two to 3 totes a week from LaDove containing “the finished cosmetic product, raw materials to manufacture such product, and packaging materials or said product” and mentioned Morales suggested him to seek advice from LaDove to go back empty totes the use of a field truck equipped by way of Morales’ husband.
The guy advised police that Morales, whilst she labored at LaDove, would textual content him day-to-day with directions, the record states.
Police mentioned after Morales resigned from LaDove, “she began to become more paranoid and anxious and ordered him to sanitize all the trash being thrown out from Volare for anything that included the name LaDove.”
In the record, he described overhearing considered one of Morales’ telephone conversations.
“At last we got the last of it out from LaDove and they are not going to notice,” Morales mentioned, he advised detectives. “We stacked the pallets high and blocked the new camera. The only thing they have on us is that we took one of their clients.”
The guy advised detectives that Morales “noticed that he had overheard what she said during the call, and after that time, (she) changed her demeanor in a negative way towards him until his dismissal a few months later.”
He additionally described receiving an highbrow belongings e-book containing “formulas to manufacture beauty products, including the necessary ingredients and ratios needed to formulate various cosmetic products,” the record states.
Authorities engaging in a seek warrant Tuesday at more than one addresses attached to Morales discovered more than one LaDove totes, a troublesome force with “confidential” LaDove information and LaDove paperwork marked “confidential.”
The allegations in opposition to Morales, on the other hand, at the moment are within the public area. After her arrest, a pass judgement on discovered possible motive to fee her with first-degree grand robbery, dealing in stolen belongings, robbery or embezzlement of industry secrets and techniques and offenses in opposition to highbrow belongings.
As of Thursday, Morales, a Colombian nationwide, used to be being held in Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $47,500 bond.
It’s now not transparent if any individual else, together with her husband, will face fees within the case.
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