No lawsuit has been filed.
This is a complaint that has been rendered into arbitration. This is typically done specifically to avoid the necessity of litigation, and an agreement to defer contended issues to arbitration is frequently a precondition of employment or involvement in contractually/legally binding activities.
The Sarb-Ox claim with the DOL is also not a lawsuit. It is part of the effort of LW to portray himself as the victim of wrongful termination. The burden of proof is still governed by law, so he's got his work cut out for him if he's going to prove it.
Basically, it looks like he's trying to bring some leverage into the arbitration with a Sarb-Ox whistleblowing ploy.
It's more than a little doubtful that this will actually work. If there was something going on, it was going on while he was there, and unless he was in the act of either investigating it himself or reporting to a govt. agency who was investigating it, and was discriminated against it specifically for that reason (i.e. terminated) he doesn't have a leg to stand on.
Since both he and FV were terminated, he's going to have a reeeeeally tough time of that. They were both suspended for interfering in "executive management succession planning". Both of them. Not just LW. So he can claim "whistleblowing" all he wants, but it ain't gonna happen because according to documentation, he was locked out for something else.
He wants leverage, and it doesn't look like he's doing a very good job of getting it. My guess is that this will impact the current share price very little. The uncertainty over this issue has already hammered us, and was the basis for my complaints over the last few weeks. The latest shareholder communication pretty much covered this.
In short, good to know, but probably don't add up to squat.
Here's the text of Sarb-Ox related to "whistleblowers"
`(a) WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION FOR EMPLOYEES OF PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANIES- No company...or any officer, employee, contractor, subcontractor, or agent of such company, may discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, harass, or in any other manner discriminate against an employee in the terms and conditions of employment because of any lawful act done by the employee--
`(1) to provide information, cause information to be provided, or otherwise assist in an investigation regarding any conduct which the employee reasonably believes constitutes a violation of section 1341, 1343, 1344, or 1348, any rule or regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or any provision of Federal law relating to fraud against shareholders, when the information or assistance is provided to or the investigation is conducted by--
`(A) a Federal regulatory or law enforcement agency;
`(B) any Member of Congress or any committee of Congress; or
`(C) a person with supervisory authority over the employee (or such other person working for the employer who has the authority to investigate, discover, or terminate misconduct); or
`(2) to file, cause to be filed, testify, participate in, or otherwise assist in a proceeding filed or about to be filed (with any knowledge of the employer) relating to an alleged violation of section 1341, 1343, 1344, or 1348, any rule or regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or any provision of Federal law relating to fraud against shareholders.
AI
