Guilty Verdict in Coca-cola Trade Secrets Trial

A former Coca-Cola secretary was today convicted of conspiring to steal trade secrets from the world's largest drinks maker in an effort to sell them to rival Pepsi.

A jury of seven women and five men in Atlanta, Georgia, deliberated for 11-and-a-half hours over three days before finding Joya Williams, 41, guilty. No sentencing date was immediately set but Williams faces up to 10 years in prison.

She showed no visible reaction when the verdict was announced. Her lawyer comforted her as she left the courtroom, and said she plans to appeal.

Yesterday, district judge J Owen Forrester told jurors to try again after they said they could not decide on a verdict.

Williams was fired as a secretary to Coca-Cola's global brand director at the company's Atlanta headquarters after the allegations came to light. The government says Williams stole confidential documents and samples of products that had not been launched and gave them to Ibrahim Dimson and Edmund Duhaney as part of a conspiracy to sell the items to rival drinks company PepsiCo for at least $1.5m (£760,000).

Dimson and Duhaney have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Duhaney testified previously that Williams spearheaded the scheme. Dimson did not testify.

The government says Williams was deeply in debt, unhappy in her job and seeking a big payday, so she embarked on the scheme to steal trade secrets.

Defence lawyer Janice Singer urged jurors to use their common sense, and she argued that prosecutors did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ms Singer suggested that Dimson and Duhaney stole the documents and product samples from Williams without her knowledge and conspired to sell them to Pepsi behind her back. Williams testified earlier this week that she left a key under her doormat for one of the co-defendants, perhaps explaining how they could have entered her home.

But assistant attorney Byung J Pak said during his closing arguments that the key-under-the-mat claim was one of many lies told by Williams.

During two days on the stand, Williams testified that she did not steal anything from Coca-Cola, but rather took documents and product samples home to protect herself in case her boss questioned whether she was doing her job.

She also claimed that $4,000 in cash she deposited into her bank account in June 2006, just days after Dimson was given $30,000 from an undercover FBI agent in exchange for Coca-Cola materials, came from a friend, not from Dimson.

But the friend, Clifton Carroll, testified that Williams was lying; he said the most money he ever loaned her was $400, and that was after her July 5 arrest.

After the verdict was announced, Ms Singer said her client had been "prepared for the worst. She was ready for whatever the jury did".

Mr Pak, the prosecutor, said: "We're happy with the verdict. It was the right verdict based on the evidence in the case."

He said it is too early to tell what sentence the government will recommend. He noted that under federal guidelines, the fact that Williams testified and denied involvement could weigh against her at sentencing.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi's rivalry has long been regarded as among the most bitter in the business world. They compete for big-budget celebrity endorsements - at one point, Coca-Cola fielded Michael Jackson against Pepsi's Madonna. In the 70s, the two ran aggressive campaigns showing "blind tasting" sessions in which their own colas won. There was even an effort to blind taste in space, with both products loaded onto the space shuttle in 1985.