Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
The ousted founder and former CEO of Orion Energy Systems, Inc., cannot prevail in his federal whistleblowing claim against the company because his complaints to the board did not amount to whistleblowing under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Seventh Circuit recently ruled in considering his appeal.
Neal V. founded Orion in 1996 and took the company public in 2007. His tenure became bumpy in 2012 when Neal asked Orion’s board to help cover the costs of his divorce.
Soon after, Neal and the board began to clash over multiple managerial and other issues, with Neal objecting to everything from excessive legal bills to unauthorized alcohol consumption by the board. The board refused his request to disclose these matters to shareholders, and Neal failed to report them in Orion’s quarterly and annual statements filed with the SEC.
As the conflict between Neal and the board over the running of the company escalated, the board discovered that about one-third of the $170,000 it had reimbursed him for his divorce expenses was unaccounted for. Neal blamed this on a fee dispute with his divorce attorney.
Consequently, the board removed Neal as CEO in September 2012 and renamed him “chairman emeritus.” Among the reasons it cited was high senior management turnover which it attributed to Neal’s “intimidating leadership style.”
Unhappy with his demotion, Neal announced his resignation, which triggered new disagreements over his severance package. Shortly before a board meeting convened to discuss Neal’s termination, he sent an email to the board reiterating his managerial complaints against them and accusing them of conspiring against him. Although he later characterized this email as a “complaint” pursuant to Orion’s whistleblower policy as well as Sarbanes-Oxley, it did not reference any official complaint filed with the SEC or other government entity, nor did it provide the board with new information or do anything except “simply rehash the numerous personal and professional grievances about which he had been complaining over the course of the past year,” in the words of the court. Continue reading ›