Apple Inc. today filed a lawsuit against a former employee, accusing him of passing trade secrets to a member of the media in return for favorable coverage of companies he was involved in.

The lawsuit names the former employee as Simon Lancaster, but Lancaster goes by the name of “Simon Lancaster-Larocque (he/him)” on LinkedIn. Lancaster held multiple roles at Apple over a period of 11 years, leaving the company in November 2019, and he claims to have worked on iPads, HomePod, various Mac products and even the Apple Magic Mouse.

Apple, which has long been famed for its secrecy, claims that “Lancaster abused his position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits. He used his seniority to gain access to internal meetings and documents outside the scope of his job’s responsibilities containing Apple’s trade secrets and he provided these trade secrets to his outside media correspondent.”

The media outlet to which Lancaster is alleged to have leaked, the journalist involved and what trade secrets were leaked were not specified by Apple.

According to AppleInsider, Apple discovered Lancaster’s role in the leaks after investigating Apple-issued devices used by Lancaster to determine his continued connection with the journalist, discovering that he took specific steps to obtain additional Apple trade secrets. Lancaster is alleged to have sent the journalist specific details upon request, sometimes using Apple-issued devices and other times in person.

Apple alleges that Lancaster also attended Apple meetings after he had already tendered his resignation for what Apple describes only as “Project X” in the filing, despite being told not to attend. He then forwarded information from that meeting to the unnamed journalist.

“Tens of thousands of Apple employees work tirelessly every day on new products, services and features in the hopes of delighting our customers and empowering them to change the world,” an Apple spokesman said in a statement. “Stealing ideas and confidential information undermines their efforts, hurting Apple and our customers.”

Despite having detailed at length why he left Apple in 2019, Lancaster has yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit. His current employer, Arris Composites Inc., has also made no comment on the lawsuit so far.

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