Bill validation tech denies charges

Monday, July 30, 2001 | 10:45 a.m.

A former support technician of Las Vegas currency validation equipment maker JCM American Corp., who was accused by the company of stealing company trade secrets, has disputed the company's charges.

Harold Richardson and another former JCM employee, Perry Byrd, were accused by JCM in a lawsuit of breaching their non-compete agreements when they allegedly stole its proprietary information to create a rival business called Kronos Technologies.

But Richardson disagreed.

"The company I was going to start was to be registered as Kronos Repair/Service Technologies. It has nothing to do with Kronos Technologies, which is owned by my friend, Dave Salour. JCM assumed Kronos (which provides hopper fill detectors to casinos) belonged to me because I was helping Salour."

"The non-compete agreement prohibits me from producing, manufacturing or distributing money-handling equipment. But I am just providing repairs and fixing bill validators. I'm not using company information to build components," he said.

"I made an offer to JCM to stop offering service in Nevada for two years if I could do repair work outside Nevada, like in the Indian reservations in California and Arizona. JCM's attorney said he would discuss the offer with JCM, but he didn't get back to me."