This message has been cross posted to the following eGroups: Chief Compliance Ethics Officer Network and Global Compliance and Ethics Community .
-------------------------------------------
NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - A former employee of Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) has sued Germany's largest drugmaker, accusing it of wrongfully firing him in retaliation for his refusal to falsify data.
According to a complaint filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the plaintiff Ralph Fabiano had been working on a project related to compliance with auditing and accounting rules under the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act when a senior Bayer executive told him to change the results of certain tests.
When he refused several requests, he was removed from his position and was later fired, violating whistleblower provisions of the law, the complaint said.
Fabiano said in the suit he was working on a testing program for North America operations when the requests were made. Fabiano said that individuals in the group processing the tests were not following their own processes and internal controls, requiring the compliance testing to be corrected.
A spokesman for Bayer at its U.S. headquarters said the U.S. Department of Labor had found no reasonable cause to believe Fabiano's allegations after an investigation, according to a June 17 letter the company received from the department.
"Consistent with our company policy we do not comment on matters of active litigation; however, we will defend ourselves vigorously in this case," said Bryan Iams, a spokesman at Bayer's office in Pittsburgh.
Lawyers for Fabiano were not immediately available for comment.
More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2926865420100729 -------------------------------------------
Connect with your peers:
Join SCCE's Social Media Groups
Eric Newman, Esq.
HCCA/SCCE
Social Media Manager
-------------------------------------------