A former Home Depot manager was sentenced on Wednesday to four months in federal prison and four months of community confinement for giving trade secrets from one potential Home Depot supplier to another, the AJC has learned.
"I am extremely remorseful for this," Guillermo Martinez, 47, of Cumming told the judge. "I crossed the line."
Martinez pleaded guilty in December to the felony charge in the case that, according to court documents and Wednesday's hearing, also entangled a Chinese billionaire who wants to build a factory in Georgia.
Martinez is a former senior manager of product engineering and one-time product designer for the Atlanta-based company. He worked at Home Depot from 2006 to 2008.
Glenn D. Baker, assistant U.S. attorney, said that in 2008 Martinez gave confidential pricing information about consumer electronics maker Leviton Manufacturing, based in Melville, N.Y., to the Chinese company General Protecht.
The information would have enabled General Protecht to offer lower prices on electrical outlets, giving them a chance to make it onto the shelves of Home Depot, the nation's third largest retailer.
At the time, Martinez was seeking a job from General Protecht. Martinez told the judge General Protecht had offered to pay him $50,000 more a year than he made at Home Depot.
The sentence by U.S. District Judge Willis B. Hunt Jr. also includes three years of supervised release, 120 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine. The community confinement could include a halfway house or group home.
It was on the lighter side of federal sentencing guidelines. "As it turns out, he [Martinez] didn't get anything of value," said Hunt, explaining the sentence. Martinez was fired from Home Depot due to the investigation, and lost another job after he pleaded guilty.
The sentence likely means Martinez, a native of Ecuador, will avoid deportation. Martinez, a legal U.S. resident, has lived in the United States since he was 11 and is married to a U.S. citizen. While he is applying for citizenship, a sentence 12 months or longer would have triggered deportation, said his attorney, Brian McEvoy.
As for General Protecht, the Martinez case slowed progress on a planned $30 million factory in Georgia. Announced in May 2007, a proposed Barnesville facility would employ up to 350 people. Company President Wusheng Chen was granted immunity in the Martinez case. At the end of 2009, the 211-acre Lamar County site remained idle.
Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes said that General Protecht had been considered as a vendor. "When this situation came to our attention, we discontinued those conversations," he said.
Martinez was caught during an ongoing investigation into Home Depot’s buying practices after several other employees pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks from overseas vendors.
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