Indiana University is now a defendant in a civil suit seeking $2 billion in compensatory and punitive damages over confidential plans for a Puerto Rico golf resort that were allegedly stolen.
Two Indiana residents, Tim and Doris Anne Sadler, filed the suit in December against a Kelley School of Business professor, five former master’s students and real estate developer Discovery Land.
The complaint alleges the Sadlers allowed IU to use their confidential business plan for the resort, developed by their company World Trade Center San Juan, for a class in fall 2021. The class created groups which analyzed and provided feedback on the project.
The class determined the revenue for the plaintiffs’ business plan could be between $1-2 billion, according to a press release.
The complaint claims the former students violated a non-disclosure agreement by sharing that plan with a competitor, Discovery Land. Two of the students had a personal connection to Discovery Land, including access to its CEO, and another had ties to the professional golf community, the complaint said.
The plaintiffs allege the professor, and IU by extension, had an obligation to convey the confidentiality of the project to the class and to identify potential conflicts of interest. They also claim the professor and IU breached the terms of the NDA.
IU Executive Director of Media Relations Mark Bode wrote in an email that IU does not comment on litigation.
“The simple truth is that we trusted Indiana University, who touts the Kelley School of Business as one of the best business schools in the country,” Tim Sadler said in a press release. “And yet, IU did not take even the most nominal actions required by our NDA’s, nor did it have any policies for protecting its business associates that even the smallest companies have in place.”
Discovery Land used the partnerships World Trade Center Puerto Rico developed, the complaint says, to steal its business model. It said Discovery Land did not contact the plaintiffs to purchase the idea or partner with them.
A Discovery Land representative reached by the IDS did not provide a comment following the suit’s initial filing in December.
Tim Sadler graduated from IU in 1992, and he and Doris Anne are Presidents Circle donors, according to Murphy.
Editor’s note: The IDS is choosing not to name the professor and former student defendants in this case because it could not reach them for comment.
