RE: WHO WOULD BUY FROM THIS COMPANY? NO ONE lot of devices do the same thing, Richardson said, but he said Route1 offered people dealing with sensitive-stored information a higher level of security against unauthorized access. Route1 has customers across America, including the U.S. government.
"We have developed electronic security and identity management solutions specifically designed to meet the high standards of the military, as well as identity validation that is compatible with government-issued identity cards, such as the U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card (CAC), the Personal Identification Verification (PIV) card and the First Responder Authentication Credential (FRAC)," Route1's website says.
In January 2007, Richardson bought 500 small "MobiKEY" units from the company for $102,000; $204 each. He sold 150 of the keys, shaped like small flash drives, in the following months.
Richardson said he charged $361 to governmental entities and $438 to businesses. He said those prices were approved by Route1.
Richardson said the deal he paid for included a year-long MobiKEY subscription, which he passed along to customers who bought the key. Route1 activated the keys; without such activation, the keys don't function.
After the year, key owners were to renew their subscriptions with Route1.
But months after he bought the MobiKEYs, Richardson said, Route1 issued a newsletter saying it intended to "unbundle" the hardware and service, meaning vendors would be selling just keys, not service activation.
Then he began to have problems with Route1. In a memo to the State Attorney's Office in Bartow, the company said the one-year service activation started the day Richardson bought the 500 keys.
There seems to be no dispute that Richardson was provided the service activation in the beginning of his agreement. The activation codes came in the boxes containing the keys Richardson bought.
But, he said, when the company recalled the keys for technical upgrades, it didn't return codes with the keys.