Several electronic devices owned by Bang Energy manufacturer Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX) have been placed on “lockdown” by a Florida federal bankruptcy court after former CEO Jack Owoc was accused last week by VPX’s attorneys of extracting and sharing privileged corporate information, following his termination from the beverage company in March.
Last week, VPX filed an emergency motion to hold Owoc and his wife Megan Owoc, the brand’s former SVP of marketing, in contempt of court on allegations that he had improperly duplicated and shared documents from electronic devices, including a laptop, still in his possession. Although Judge Peter Russin declined to hold the Owocs in contempt, stating only that “It may very well be [or] it may not be” worthy of a contempt charge, he ordered a ban on anyone from accessing the devices in question until an agreement can be reached “on a process to allow access to the information once it has been extracted by an independent third party.”
“The first order of business is to figure out what the universe is, get it into the hands of the third party, extract it and figure out a protocol for both sides to review and protect the privileged documents,” Judge Russin said.
In its motion, VPX alleged that following his firing on March 9, Jack Owoc was able to bypass attempts to lock him out of the company’s servers by gaining control of a “legacy domain” and sending a company wide email titled “HOSTILE TAKEOVER – MEG AND JACK FIRED!” Jack Owoc was also accused by VPX’s attorney, Amy Quartarolo, of sending a company laptop to a third party to extract roughly 5,600 corporate documents.
The Owocs’ attorney, Jonathan Feldman, called the motion a “bit over the top,” Law360 reported, and said his clients did not intentionally withhold documents. He noted that Jack Owoc has already gone through a discovery process in which he provided text messages from his personal phone.
This isn’t the first time during VPX’s bankruptcy hearings that the former CEO has been taken to task for improper use of digital communications. In April, a battle over whether Owoc or the company owned the rights to the social media handle “bangenergy.ceo,” which has been used by Owoc on Instagram and TikTok, as well as the @BangEnergyCEO Twitter account. Last month, Owoc was ordered to delete disparaging posts he made against VPX, Monster Energy Company and others.
This latest motion against Owoc arrives as VPX’s bankruptcy auction date has again been delayed, with the most recent date scheduled for June 30. However, according to Beverage Business Insights last week, citing the Americas Middle Market newsletter, the fate of VPX may be delayed once again as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was reported to be investigating a bid to purchase the company jointly filed by Monster and beverage brand Orange Bang.
Monster, whose trademark infringement and false advertising lawsuits against VPX drove the business into bankruptcy last year, has been floated as a natural acquirer for the company as it is the largest creditor and would therefore receive a significant cash discount for an acquisition. An FTC investigation into the bid is expected to take at least “a couple of months at a minimum,” according to the report, which could open VPX to financial difficulties – with liquidation a realistic threat – as it fights to fund its operations and the Chapter 11 process amid rapidly declining sales.