New York, February 3:

A trusted former secretary at Coca-Cola faces up to 10 years behind bars for plotting to cash in on one of the business world’s fiercest rivalries by stealing vials of new cola products and offering them to arch compe-titor, Pepsi, for $1.5 million.

After three days of deliberation, a jury in Coke’s home city of Atlanta reached a guilty verdict on Joya Williams, an aggrieved 41-year-old administrator accused of masterminding a cack-handed attempt at industrial espionage.

In a scandal which blew the lid on the culture of secrecy surrounding Coke’s new fizzy drinks, Williams was caught on a surveillance camera hiding sensitive documents and vials of product samples in a brown Armani bag. She was in league with two ex-convicts, family friend Edmund Duhaney and accomplice Ibrahim Dimson, who wrote to Pepsi under the pseudonym ‘Dirk’ and asked for an initial $100,000 for a taste of Coke’s new offerings.

Unfortunately for the trio, Pepsi executives blew the whistle as soon they were approached; the FBI then launched a sting which culminated in Williams and her friends being arrested at gunpoint in an ambush which, she admitted to the court, ‘scared the crap out of me’.

Williams was convicted of conspiracy charges carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Sentencing was deferred Defence lawyer Janice Singer said her client had been ‘prepared for the worst’.

Coke has traditionally made much of the fact that the recipe to its signature product is kept in a bank vault accessible to only a handful of people. That formula was not compromised by Williams but she did steal information about Coca-Cola Blak, a new coffee-infused cola.

The jury heard that Williams, who suffered from immune system disease lupus, was deeply in debt and disillusioned with her job. In the witness box, she vigorously protested her innocence claiming she was merely taking home work because of her poor health.