2 Coke conspirators sentence

Atlanta -- Two former Coca-Cola employees were ordered to federal prison Wednesday for trying to sell trade secrets to rival Pepsi, authorities in Atlanta said.

Joya Williams, 42, Norcross, Ga., was given an eight-year term, while Ibrahim Dimson, 31, of New York, received a five-year sentence, CNN reported.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a news release that both were ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution.

Williams was found guilty in February of plotting to offer samples of a new Coca-Cola product to Pepsi for $1.5 million. Dimson pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge last fall.

A third defendent, Edmund Duhaney, 43, of Decatur, Ga., will be sentenced at a later date.

They were snared in a federal sting operation last summer after Pepsi tipped off Coke that it was being offered inside information.

"This case is an example of good corporate citizenship leading to a successful prosecution, and that unlawfully gaining a competitive advantage by stealing another's trade secrets can lead straight to federal prison," said U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.