The
Associated Press is
reporting that federal prosecutors have filed a motion in the ongoing
Hilton/Starwood Hotels saga saying that the current civil litigation could harm a criminal investigation.
We've been watching this lawsuit go forward with interest for some time now. As you'll recall, Starwood sued Hilton over two senior executives (Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani) who departed and managed to show up at Hilton with seemingly truckloads of confidential documents relating to Starwood's luxury brands. Hilton fired Ross and Amar and sent the documents back to Starwood but claimed they didn't really appear to be confidential documents. Denizen, Hilton's new luxury brand, bit the dust soon after the first lawsuit was filed. The suit even contains a
quote from this blog describing the similarity of Denizen to W at the brand launch - what foresight!
Starwood Hotels & Resorts added some scandalous new claims to its
lawsuit against Hilton Hotels Corp. Starwood alleges Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta and at least 44 other executives were aware of the “corporate espionage” breech and “tried to cover up” the happenings.
Hilton Worldwide found itself in a sticky situation yet again this week as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered the Hilton Margarita and Suites be seized and nationalized because the property attempted to place conditions of its use for an event hosted by the Venezuelan government,
according to AFP.
