Verizon Business`s Gallo Manor offices were sealed this morning, and all employees have been locked in, following a court search and seizure order.
"An Anton Piller order has been served on our clients by Dimension Data, trading through Internet Solutions, under the terms of which a search and seizure order has been granted by the court in order to preserve evidence," says Sue Hayes, attorney at Cliffe Dekker Incorporated, representing Verizon.
An Anton Piller court order provides for the right to search premises and seize evidence without prior warning. This is used to prevent the destruction of incriminating evidence, particularly in cases of alleged trademark, copyright or patent infringements.
"No staff are permitted to leave until the collection of evidence has been done - this should be by end of business today," adds Hayes.
No service
Sources said this morning that all Verizon`s support services are unavailable, and at least two sources have confirmed Verizon employees have had their mobile phones confiscated.
"My entire business is sitting inside Verizon. We`ve been doing a lot of installations; we needed some firewall and routing installations done," comments one source, a Verizon customer, who cannot be named.
"The support service section has been shut down - I was informed that nothing could be done until 5pm today."
More details to come
ITWeb visited Verizon`s offices this morning where a security guard at the gate said employees and visitors are being turned away, and indicated the building has been sealed off while an emergency internal investigation is conducted.
Jo Perrin, at Verizon`s international media relations, says customers should not consider moving their servers. The organisation will release updated information as soon as possible, adds Perrin.
The official comment from Verizon`s international media relations department is: "Verizon Business received notice of an inquiry into a civil complaint by a competitor. We are co-operating fully with this investigation. At this time we have no further comments."
Says Internet Solutions` new business director, Hillel Schrock: "We have been instructed not to comment at this stage. It is a legal action and it is in process and we are thus unable to comment."
Verizon Business is part of Verizon Communications` wholly-owned global Internet Protocol network. Based in New York and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the group employs about 250 000 people worldwide and generates revenue of about $90 billion.
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