Sycamore’s Dollar Express ‘profited from stolen information’

A Sycamore Partners portfolio company has found evidence a former employee stole information and gave it to an executive at another of the private equity firm’s businesses, who then used it to his company’s advantage.

Court filings from Dollar Tree/Family Dollar allege Pamela Frailey stole a confidential and proprietary list of planned Family Dollar store openings and shared it with her boyfriend who was senior vice-president at Dollar Express, a second Sycamore-backed company that was seeking to acquire the former.

Frailey submitted an affidavit admitting the allegations. In it she said she copied the new store openings schedule to a thumb drive when she left Family Dollar, compared this information with a hard copy list of Dollar Express store locations, and created a new document that compared the overlapping or conflicting locations between the two stores.

“I saved [the list] to the thumb drive, deleted the original schedule from the thumb drive, and gave it to my boyfriend, Richard Siliakus,” the affidavit said.

The stolen confidential information was likely used by Dollar Express to compete unfairly, the filing said. A North Carolina court granted Family Dollar’s request for a temporary restraining order against Frailey.

Dollar Tree/Family Dollar has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Sycamore and Dollar Express since June, when the two parties issued counter lawsuits.

Dollar Tree/Family Dollar claimed Sycamore Partners “failed to invest the required capital” into the Dollar Tree/Family Dollar stores Dollar Express acquired, or to make the most basic preparations for its operation as a long-term business.

Sycamore Partners and Dollar Express claim that Dollar Tree/Family Dollar schemed to put Dollar Express out of business. The cases are ongoing.