A financial controller for Ford Motor Company’s Greenleaf LLC recycling subsidiary has filed a ‘whistleblower’ lawsuit against the company, claiming she was sacked after raising questions about company accounting practices, the Detroit News reported.
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Andrea Poppe-Grove, a manager for Greenleaf, a chain of 31 scrapyard and recycling centres in 14 US states, filed the civil claim in Wayne County Circuit Court last month, the newspaper said.
However, the Detroit News said, Ford and Greenleaf, the defendants in the lawsuit, claim the lawsuit is meritless.
Ford has filed its response to the suit which has not been taken up by a judge, the newspaper added.
The Detroit News said that the legal dispute threatens to complicate Ford’s plans to sell the money-losing business by early next year and that Ford has asked The Goldman Sachs Group to help it find a buyer for Greenleaf.
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By GlobalDataAccording to the Detroit News, Poppe-Grove claims in the lawsuit that in January she began questioning accounting and reporting practices at Ford and Greenleaf, particularly concerning an offering memorandum that was being prepared for the planned sale of Greenleaf.
Poppe-Grove claims she then began writing internal memos expressing concern about “misrepresentations” and “misleading” financial figures within the offering memorandum, which contains financial information distributed to potential buyers, the suit contends, according to the Detroit News.
The suit said that Ford asked Poppe-Grove to sign a confidentiality agreement and she requested that the agreement be amended to allow her to contact a lawyer and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, the newspaper added.
Citing her attorney, Stefani Carter, the Detroit News said that Poppe-Grove signed the amended agreement though, through her attorney, she declined to comment.
The Detroit News said that Ford fired Poppe-Grove on April 14 and she claims the termination was a direct result of her questioning of Ford’s accounting practices and is seeking in excess of $25,000 for damages, including the loss of earnings and career opportunity.
According to the Detroit News, Ford spokesman Dave Reuter said the company denies Poppe-Grove’s allegations.
“We believe the lawsuit is completely without merit and that it does not accurately reflect the high standard of accounting in place at Ford,” Reuter told the newspaper.
“There are no accounting irregularities at Ford or Greenleaf.”
According to the Detroit News, Reuter added that Poppe-Grove was fired “with cause,” but declined to elaborate.
Attorney Carter told the newspaper that her client was told she was fired for poor job performance but had an exemplary work record.
Ford bought an equity stake in Greenleaf in 1998 and had bought out the chain of scrapyards by 2000, the Detroit News added.
