— Absolutely, — Vera confirmed. — Corporate email is company property. The employer has the right to check employee correspondence if there are suspicions of a breach of work discipline or disclosure of trade secrets. This is supported by judicial practice.
Kirill nodded and left the conference room, pulling out his phone.
Pavel sat back down at the head of the table and looked at Svetlana. She sat staring at the tabletop, and for the first time all evening, she looked genuinely frightened.
— Svetlana Andreevna, — he said more quietly, — if you know something, it’s better to say it now. If it turns out that you were indeed planning to hand over documents to competitors, the consequences will be much more severe. Up to and including criminal liability.
— Criminal? — She looked up at him.
— Article 183 of the Criminal Code, — Vera explained. — Unlawful acquisition and disclosure of information constituting a trade secret. The penalty is a fine of up to 500,000 or imprisonment for up to two years. If the disclosure causes major damage, up to three years of imprisonment.
Svetlana covered her face with her hands.
— I… I didn’t want to! — she started, but cut herself off.
— Go on, — Pavel said gently.
She shook her head and straightened up, trying to regain her composure.
— No! No, I won’t say anything without a lawyer.
— That’s your right, — Pavel agreed. — But the investigation won’t stop because of it.
The door opened, and Oleg returned with a tablet in his hands.
— Pavel Igorevich, I’ve pulled up the camera footage, — he said. — There’s something interesting.
He placed the tablet on the table and played the video. The screen showed the corridor near the archive. The timestamp indicated yesterday, 6:47 PM.
— Look, — Oleg pointed. — Here’s Svetlana Andreevna entering the archive. Empty hands, just a purse on her shoulder.
Everyone leaned towards the screen. Indeed, the footage showed Svetlana holding her electronic key to the reader and disappearing behind the door.
— Now watch what happens next. — Oleg fast-forwarded the recording. — She comes out 23 minutes later.
The video continued. The archive door opened, and Svetlana stepped into the corridor. In her hands was a thin folder of documents.
— Stop, — Pavel said. — Zoom in.
Oleg enlarged the image. The folder was a standard cardboard one, but it had a red sticker on it with the word “Confidential.”
— That’s the marking for documents with trade secrets, — Gennady explained. — We use such stickers for contracts with key clients.
Everyone looked at Svetlana. She sat motionless, staring at the table.
— And what happens with that folder? — Pavel asked.
Oleg switched the recording again.
— She walks down the corridor to her office. The camera there has a blind spot, but 40 minutes later she leaves the office. The folder is gone.
— Where did the folder go? — asked Kirill, who had returned to the conference room.
— That’s what we need to find out, — Pavel said, his eyes fixed on Svetlana. — Svetlana Andreevna, do you have anything to say?
She slowly raised her head. Her face was pale, her red nails digging into the armrests of her chair.
— I… — she began, but her voice broke.
At that moment, Kirill’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and then looked at Pavel.
— It’s the IT department, — he said. — They say they have urgent information about Svetlana Andreevna’s email.
Pavel nodded.
— Put it on speaker.
Kirill pressed a button, and the system administrator’s voice filled the conference room:
— Kirill Maximovich, we’ve checked the corporate email of Svetlana Andreevna Beregay. We found several emails sent to an external address. The emails were deleted from the ‘Sent’ folder, but we restored them from the archive. One of the emails, sent the day before yesterday, has an attachment—a file with contracts.
— And the text of the email? — Pavel commanded.
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