A federal grand jury indicted Kurtis Kenneth Cullen and Bruce Zak, both from Michigan, on charges of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, theft of trade secrets and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Steven S. Reed said. An initial indictment in February named only Cullen. The indictment of Zak and the extra charges against Cullen stemmed from additional evidence presented to the grand jury, FBI spokesman David Beyer said Monday. Beyer said it was the first case of software piracy pursued by the FBI in Kentucky. The Louisville software company had developed a computer program for processing health care benefit claims forms.
Source codes are the programs that make software and Internet sites work.
It can take years of research to develop. ZirMed has said its software would allow medical personnel to forward medical claims data directly to insurance companies through the Internet. Cullen and Zak, of West Bloomfield, Mich., are scheduled to be arraigned before a U.S. magistrate on April 17. Zak's age was not immediately known. E-mail this story to a friend.