Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
When an employee of a medical parts manufacturer was caught up in a foreign corrupt practices investigation of his employer and subsequently fired, the employee could not sue the employer for defamation. The employer included the former employee on a list of prohibited parties that the employer claimed posed an unacceptable compliance risk for the company. The appellate panel found that these statements were not defamatory because they were expressions of opinion or were the truth.
Biomet is a global corporation that manufactures and sells medical devices. Biomet is headquartered in Warsaw, Indiana. Biomet subsidiary Biomet Argentina, SA employed Alejandro Yeatts from 2005 to 2015. Yeatts worked in the position of Business Manager for South America from 2008 through 2014. Yeatts responsibilities included implementing Biomet’s compliance policies.
Biomet had a distribution agreement with Prosintese, a Brazillian company run by Sergio Galindo. In 2008, Biomet terminated that agreement after it learned that Galindo had bribed healthcare providers to promote and market Biomet products. This conduct is prohibited by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Yeatts was informed after the fact that Galindo had paid bribes. Yeatts had also attended FCPA training sessions explaining prohibited conduct. Continue reading ›