A woman stole products and formulas from the cosmetics manufacturing company where she worked in Miami Lakes to later found her own business in Hialeah.
Catalina Morales, 43, worked for more than two decades at LaDove, located at 5701 Miami Lakes Drive, where she started as a bottle filler and worked her way up to corporate operations manager, before leaving last year.
Police accuse her of stealing $800,000 in “trade secrets, cosmetic formulas, raw materials, finished products and packaging materials” to use in her own company, Volare, which she founded in 2019.
According to the arrest report, to which he had access Local 10last December, the wife of a Volare employee approached a LaDove executive and offered information about the thefts.
As a result, LaDove hired private detectives who surveilled several Volare warehouses in Hialeah and recorded videos showing bags and materials identified as LaDove property.
Morales coordinated the transportation of the materials through her husband and another employee who acted as a courier and who received daily instructions from her even after her departure from LaDove.
“During his employment, he initially believed that Volare and LaDove were the same company, due to the way products came and went without any questions,” detectives said after questioning that worker.
That man reported that he heard her talking on the phone in which she said: “We finally got the last of LaDove and they’re not going to notice.” He later expressed: “The only thing they have against us is that we took one of their clients.”
According to the witness, the woman “realized that he had heard what she said during the call, and after that time, she changed her behavior in a negative manner toward him until his dismissal a few months later.”
Catalina, a resident of the city of Miramar, was arrested Tuesday after a raid in which police found items marked as LaDove property, including a hard drive with confidential company information.
The woman faces charges of first-degree grand larceny, trafficking in stolen property, theft or embezzlement of trade secrets and intellectual property crimes.
She is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade County, and the judge set her bail at $47,500.
It has not yet been determined whether her husband will also face charges.
