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Kevin Hart
Ex-Employees Fire Back
At Restraining Order Over Alleged Company Secrets
Published
Kevin Hart‘s company and two of his former employees are in the middle of a nasty court battle over alleged company secrets … TMZ has learned.
According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, Kevin’s company Hartbeat sued two former employees, Eric Eddings, who started working at the company in 2022, and Lesley Gwam, who was hired in April 2023, back in February.
Per the suit, Hartbeat says the duo had access to extensive confidential and proprietary and trade secret information, financial performance data, partnership strategies, and business plans for Hartbeat’s audio and podcast division.
Hartbeat claimed Eric and Lesley used the confidential info to develop a competing podcast business “while still employed at Hartbeat.”
Kevin’s company claims the ex-employees even created and circulated an investor pitch deck seeking to raise $2 million for the new venture … allegedly saying “We’ve built this before. Now we’re building it for ourselves.” The suit claimed that in late 2025, one of Hartbeat’s largest podcasting clients refused to extend its contract with Hartbeat due to Eric’s alleged mismanagement.
In the court docs, Hartbeat said Eric and Lesley were fired on January 30, 2026, the day after Hartbeat learned about the pitch deck. A couple of days later, Hartbeat fired off a cease and desist demanding the duo to stop using or revealing company secrets … and then followed up with a lawsuit seeking an injunction to block them from doing the same.
Hartbeat claimed the former employees’ actions caused a “ripple effect of decreasing overall revenue in our podcast and audio division, and as a result, Hartbeat was forced to downsize the division.”
In their own legal docs, Eric and Lesley are scoffing at the request for an injunction, claiming it was utterly lacking in merit and nothing but a “poorly-veiled attempt to prevent” them from working.
The duo said there is no evidence that they misappropriated any confidential information and claimed Hartbeat was wrongfully trying to stop their new business. They said their deck used standard industry information, nothing from Hartbeat.
Eric pointed out that he worked at Sirius XM, a larger company than Hartbeat, before he took the job at Kevin’s company. Lesley said she also had a ton of previous experience.
The duo said they only started working on their company after Hartbeat made severe cuts to the podcast division. Eric and Lesley said they did work on their company while employed but never sought investors or began creating show concepts. They said they still have not launched the company, in part because of the lawsuit filed by Hart, which they say has had a chilling effect on their ability to talk to investors.
The legal back and forth between Hartbeat and the former employees was first detailed by Bloomberg.
The outlet said Hartbeat got rid of around 12 employees in December, including people who worked in the podcast department.
