Former Auburn staffer faces felony charges for allegedly stealing and sharing trade secrets

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — A former Auburn staffer has been arrested on charges of stealing trade secrets from the football program and sending them to competitors, according to court records.

David Rudolph Jenrath, 24, turned himself in to authorities Monday and was charged with two felonies: theft of trade secrets and computer tampering. He is being held on $15,000 bond at the Lee County Jail, according to police.

A news release issued Tuesday by the Auburn Police Department said a “business reported that sensitive information was stolen from the business and distributed to their competitors. The business reported that one of their competitors received the information and turned it over to them.”

It’s unclear which schools received the stolen information. A complaint alleges that the incident occurred on July 19 at the Auburn Athletics Complex.

Jenrath’s profile on LinkedIn, which has now been removed, said he worked for the Auburn football program as a player personnel scouting assistant from January through June. His focus was on running backs and special teams.

His profile said his duties included evaluating high school and transfer-portal prospects, preparing scouting reports and recruiting summaries, assisting with opponent scouting and maintaining recruiting databases. His profile also said he was an applied artificial intelligence/sports analytics student at the University of Tennessee.

Auburn plays at Tennessee on Saturday.