Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Ethics Blogs -> Ethisphere Blog - Good. Smart. Business. Profit.

Ethics

: Ethisphere Blog - Good. Smart. Business. Profit.

Former Employee Sues AIG over Retaliation for Reporting Alleged FCPA Violation

By bpj1966

While American International Group has its hands full untangling the knots created by its Financial Products Division, another allegation has been raised against the embattled insurance giant. A former employee of AIG recently sued the company, alleging that she was retaliated against after blowing the whistle on payments made to the South Korean government.

The employee, Kimberly Lebron, a compliance manager, alleged that the South Korean postal agency offered to invest $50 million into an AIG fund in exchange for a six week paid vacation for one of its employees, according to a story by Reuters.

After raising the issue with her supervisors, she alleged that she was fired from the company in retaliation. AIG denies the allegations and plans to ?defend the action vigorously.?

Commentary: Of course, we don?t know the other circumstances of her employment with AIG but the concept that someone is blowing the whistle on a single vacation underscores the mainstreaming of FCPA awareness and willingness by an employee to highlight what is non-compliance. We are not talking millions of dollars in bribes here.

Furthermore, if true, we wonder why a company would bother adding a compliance officer to its payroll if it didn?t plan on listening to complaints raised by the compliance team in the first place. Compliance professionals are, obviously, experts in areas such as FCPA violations. And, for that matter, are also very familiar with laws protecting them against retaliation.

Full post as published by Ethisphere Blog - Good. Smart. Business. Profit. on July 27, 2009 (boomark / email).