Court Told Pan Boss Ordered Data Deletion

March 15, 2007: A former IT manager at PAN Pharmaceuticals says he was ordered to destroy computer data and then cover his tracks by changing dates on his computer

The NSW Supreme Court was told yesterday by Karl Brooks how his then boss and founder of PAN Pharmaceuticals, Jim Selim, ordered him to destroy the data as investigations began over the travel sickness drug, Travacalm.

Brooks says he used Google to search for a program that would delete the data. He took his computer home to install the program, woke at 4:30 am to check it had worked, then changed the time and date configurations before returning the computer to work.

Selim has pleaded not guilty in the jury trial for the charge of procuring the destruction of evidence relating to the drug. In 2003, the Therapeutic Good Administration (TGA) ordered the company to halt production of Travacalm after a series of consumer complaints.

Brooks says Selim wanted to make sure the files, allegedly relating to computer tests on the drug, could not be retrieved by ‘anyone.’ He told Selim of his plans to reformat the computer so a forensics team would not be able to access the data.

“Mr Selim..said to me, can you make it so the data is not retrievable by anyone…To which I replied, I could try,” Brooks told the court.

Brooks told the court he did not become aware of the controversy surrounding Tracacalm until one month later in February 2003. When Federal Police came to Pan offices to investigate the matter, Brooks says he ‘panicked; and returned to the computer to delete more data.

The trial continues.

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