March 25 (Bloomberg) — Statements by Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg over staff poaching in Silicon Valley could pose antitrust hurdles for her former employer, Google Inc.

Sandberg said in a court filing unsealed last week that while she was an executive at Google in 2006, she knew of an agreement to avoid recruiting some workers from software-company Intuit Inc. That didn't stop her from refusing to limit hiring of Google employees after she joined Facebook in 2008, she said in the filing.

No-poaching agreements in Silicon Valley have thrust companies including Google, Apple Inc. and Intel Corp. into court. The companies are alleged to have violated antitrust laws by striking deals with one another to not recruit each other's staff. Sandberg's statement indicates there were executives in Silicon Valley who realized the practice was improper, which helps the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said Joseph Alioto, an antitrust lawyer in San Francisco.

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