Legal Question in Business Law in California

Your question is impossibly too broad to answer. Consequences for whom? What are/were the impacts on the company whose trade secrets or confidential information was disclosed or misused? Who disclosed it? When, why, to whom? The questions go on and on when you have given no facts to work with.

In response to a fuzzy question, here's a fuzzy answer: The consequence of committing a business tort such as, for example, misappropriating a trade secret, is that you'll be sued for money damages and, upon losing, will have a judgment entered against you for enough money to compensate the victim for the dollar value of the harm proven at trial.