Prada legal adviser's laptop stolen

By JULIE ASH

A laptop belonging to Prada's top legal adviser has been stolen from a central Auckland law office, but the syndicate will not say if it held sensitive information about its protest against fellow yachting syndicate OneWorld.

Alessandra Pandarese's laptop was taken from her supporting law firm Norton White on Friday morning during a break-in of her ground-floor office.

Prada and Team Dennis Conner have asked the America's Cup Arbitration Panel to throw OneWorld out of the regatta, claiming the syndicate violated the cup rules by using other teams' design information. The panel meets this week to hear evidence on the claims.

Pandarese is the principal legal adviser to Prada Challenge 2003 and secretary-general of Challenger of Record Management.

She said she arrived at the Norton White offices about 10am for a meeting and found her ground floor office had been broken into. "The window was open when I went into the office this morning, although I always close it every time I leave the office.

"As soon as I opened the door I saw that the computer screen which usually sits on my desk had been knocked to the floor. The screen was lying on the floor, with bits of broken plastic casing around it.

"The laptop fitted in a docking station connected to the screen, keyboard and printer, and was gone. The various cables were disconnected from the docking station, with their loose ends scattered around the desk."

Apart from the laptop, nothing else was taken from the office.

"I usually take the laptop with me to use in the other locations. But yesterday, around noon I had experienced software problems. I closed the computer down and I left it there so that a check could be performed."

Police are investigating.

Prada spokeswoman Alessandra Ghezzi said the syndicate would not say what was on the computer.

OneWorld executive director Bob Ratliffe said they were not aware of the missing laptop and had not been contacted by police.

Team Dennis Conner also revealed yesterday that someone had tried to hack into the computer of their rules adviser, Luis Saenz, several times last week.

Syndicate spokesman Keith Taylor said Saenz had software on his computer that detected outsiders trying to hack in.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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