15 February 2002 Storage hardware vendor EMC has been hit by new accusations over its accounting practices and treatment of business partners. The allegations have been made by former sales vice president Kenneth Gresham, detailed in court documents unsealed yesterday.

The claims came to light as a result of a legal dispute between Gresham and EMC over the terms of a non-compete agreement signed when Gresham left the storage giant. Gresham says that he left the company for “moral and ethical” reasons. EMC denies the allegations.

Gresham also says that EMC broke the terms of reseller agreements with partners such as Unisys by refusing to re-purchase devices they could not sell. EMC says that there was no such contractual obligation to re-purchase the surplus equipment.

After EMC, Gresham was appointed CEO of Eurologic Systems, a Dublin, Ireland-based storage hardware maker. However, EMC says that this breaks the term of Gresham’s non-compete agreement.

Illustrating the depth of bitterness, Gresham has further claimed that following the filing of the lawsuit, he has had his house broken into twice and has received an anonymous phone call from someone telling him that his phone is tapped.