MANHATTAN (LN) — U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni on Thursday entered a Consent Order and Stipulated Injunction in Guidepoint Global’s trade secret lawsuit against former employee Sheetal Duggal and her new company, Inquire Network. The order bars the defendants from using Guidepoint’s proprietary information and mandates a forensic inspection of their electronic devices within three business days.
The consent order, filed May 14, resolves the immediate procedural dispute between Guidepoint Global and Duggal, who is accused in the complaint of exfiltrating confidential data to launch a competitor. However, the source document notes that Duggal and Inquire Network explicitly dispute the claims and allegations in the First Amended Complaint. They entered the stipulation to avoid the risks and expenses of motion practice, without prejudice to their rights, claims, and defenses.
Other named defendants in the case, including Alan Ware, Kirang Gohil, and Christiana Eng, are not parties to this specific stipulation.
The injunction prohibits Duggal and Inquire Network from using, printing, copying, distributing, disclosing, or examining any of Guidepoint’s trade secrets, including "lists of advisors" and documents containing current or prospective business opportunities, such as a file named "Pipeline Sheet."
To enforce the order, the court mandated that Defendants make their electronic devices and email accounts available for forensic inspection within three business days. The inspection must be conducted by a mutually agreed independent forensic examiner who will create forensic images and collect metadata to identify any deleted files or evidence of data transmission.
Defendants must provide all passwords, authentication credentials, and encryption keys necessary for the examiner to access the devices. The order specifies that the examiner will first provide the collected data to Defendants to review for privileged or irrelevant materials before producing the results to Guidepoint.
The stipulated injunction also requires Defendants to complete a full production of documents in response to Requests for Production and fully respond to Interrogatories by May 26, 2026. Additionally, Duggal and a representative of Guidepoint must be available for a deposition not exceeding three hours, scheduled no later than June 16, 2026.
The order remains in effect until the court issues a decision on Guidepoint’s pending motion for preliminary injunction or further order of the court.
The case was filed on May 4, 2026, with a Verified First Amended Complaint filed on May 11 alleging that the defendants exfiltrated trade secrets to further a new company.